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THE MEN 3^HO MADE 
THE NATION 




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THE MEN WHO MADE 
THE NATION 

An Outline of United States History 

FROM 1760 TO 1865 



EDWIN ERLE SPARKS, Ph.D. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY REPRODUCTIONS OF CONTEMPORARY 
PRINTS, SKETCHES, FACSIMILES, ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
I9OI 

AZJ rights reserved 



5)078 1 



Library of Con^ 

Two Cows Receivcd 
DEC 19 1900 

Qs. CopyrighJI Mirj 

SECOND COPY 

Uovivwd to 

ORDER DIVISION 
JAN 11 l.qni 



Copyright, «Mp9« 



By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



ICortoooti ^3rf83 

J. S. Cushiii^ Jk Co. — Berwick & Smith 

Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

This outline of United States History is based upon 
these hypotheses : — 

That the unification of the American people is now 
sufficiently accomplished to warrant the general reader 
in following up the chief events which have overcome 
inherent individualism and have by necessity compelled 
cooperation. 

That a recital of the events in the nation's career 
without the persons connected therewith is to the un- 
trained reader an empty stage. However magnificently 
•set, it is lifeless without the players. The making of 
the nation is the story of the men who made it. 

That at any given period of affairs one man will be 
found who is master of the situation, and events natu- 
rally group themselves about him. 

That the preeminence of one man at any period does 
not detract from the services of the minor characters, 
some of whom may become leaders subsequently. 

That an intensive and extensive study of the nation's 
history can be best secured by making an outline inter- 
estinsf and directive. 



vi PREFATORY NOTE 

That amidst the confusing multitude of details in 
the forming of a national character, the reader can 
trace the slow, but steady, evolution of a comparatively 
harmonious people from the most heterogeneous and 
apparently hopeless elements. The process of recon- 
ciling the inherited prejudices which have rent the Old 
World is not yet complete in the New ; but the stern 
hand of necessity has wrought the reluctant material 
so far that the result may be viewed with pride by 
those who read the story. 

The University oy Chicago, 
December, 1900. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Benjamin Franklin, tiie Colonial Agent in England . . i 

CHAPTER II 

Samuel Adams, the Man of the Town Meeting ... 47 

CHAPTER III 
John Adams, the Partisan of Independence .... 79 

CHAPTER IV 
Robert Morris, the Financier of the Revolution . . .119 

CHAPTER V 
Alexander Hamilton, the Advocate of Stronger Government . 151 

CHAPTER VI 
George Washington, the First President . . „ .181 

CHAPTER VII 

Thomas Jefferson, the Exponent of Democracy . . . 218 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

Henrv Clay, the Father of Public Improvements . . . ^5 

CHAPTER IX 
Andrew Jackson, the People's President .... 282 

CHAPTER X 
Daniel Webster, the Defender of the Constitution . . - 318 

CHAPTER XI 
Horace Greeley, the Anti-slavery Editor .... 347 

CHAPTER XII 
Abraham Lincoln, a New Type of American .... 378 

Index 411 



mW^ 



JUft puMinied, POOR RICHARDS Aim. ^^■ACT: for '.':. 
Year 1732. Conraininj:, befides the t)rii;u Matters, a parti- 
cular Account of the Chungss the Yieai Larli uncicrcoix; i.i tormcr 
AijcT, with the Realons thereof; anti aitv liic jatt: Act «t Pati>a- 
j-.i'-.ni for rsfulating the Commente:r.cni, i.i\c coiicvi^tii'S the Calen- 
tlar, primed at large. "-"^ 

A L .S O, 
The AMERICAN COUNTRY ALMANACK, 

\ » tTray'd aw^y on the 18 h o) l^ft m<jiith, «ur wt the yard of 

Announcement of Poor Richard's .Almanac in Frank li.ns 
Pennsylvania Gazeite 



THE MEN WHO MADE 
THE NATION 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

CHAPTER I 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE COLONIAL AGENT IN ENGLAND 

Reedy Island, 7 at night, 8 November, 1764. 
My dear Sally, — We got down here at sunset, having 
taken in more live stock at Newcastle, with some other things 
we wanted. Our good friends, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Wharton, 
and Mr. James, came with me in the ship from Chester to 
Newcastle, and went ashore there. It was kind to favor me 
with their company as far as they could. The affectionate 
leave taken of me by so many friends at Chester was very 
endearing. God bless them and all Philadelphia. . . . 

B. Franklin. 

Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, had started on 
his third voyage to England. His fruitless errand 
under the supposed patronage of Governor Keith, of 
Pennsylvania, in 1724, had been followed in 1757 by a 
mission as agent of the people of Pennsylvania in their 
contest with the heirs of William Penn, proprietors of 
that province. After five years of service, he had re- 
turned, and was now sent back on a similar errand, 
having been allowed to remain but two years at home. 

On the first of these visits Franklin was an unknown 
printer. Before he saw England the second time. Poor 
Richard's quaint sayings in Richard Saunders' Almanac 
had made its printer-author famous. His experiments 

B I 



2 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

in the realm of science were known to the reading 
world. His complete works had been published in 
London. But on this third visit he was destined to 
enter the field of political writings, to enlighten England 
about her American possessions, and to assist, quite 
unintentionally, in divesting her of a portion of these 
treasures. 

Much information could not be expected in England 
concerning these million and a half colonists, scattered 
in little groups along a thousand miles of seacoast. 
They were in a "new world," surrounded by dense 
forests, in constant danger from savages, and with slight 
means of inter-communication. Even effective coop- 
eration was prevented by the racial, religious, and class 
differences, which they brought from the old country 
and transmitted to their children. Of these sources of 
dissension, sectarianism would naturally be the most 
difficult to overcome. 

The " Established church " of England was strongest 
in Virginia. It was under the bishop of London, in 
accord with the ecclesiastical law ; it was favored by the 
aristocratic ruling class ; it had its glebes and parish 
houses ; the salaries of its clergy were arranged by law ^ 

1 In 1696, the annual salary of a clergyman was fixed at 16,000 pounds 
of tobacco ; for performing a marriage ceremony, 400 pounds; for a fu- 
neral service, 200 pounds, etc. Variations in crops and quality of tobacco 
gave rise to many suits at law, in one of which Patrick Henry gained his 
first prominence as an agitator by denouncing this compulsory church sys- 
tem. See Tyler's " Henry," p. 32. An original account of this " Parson's 
Cause," as well as original material on nearly all points in American his- 
tory, may be found in Hart's "American History told by Contemporaries." 
For a presentation of the case from another standpoint, see Meade's " Old 
Churches and Families of Virginia," I., 219. For the colonial churches in 
general, see Lodge's " History of the American Colonies." 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 3 

and paid largely by tithes exacted from the citizens. 
These proud churchmen looked down with a kind of scorn 
on the "dissenters" in New England. Crossing the ocean 
could not heal the breach between Cavalier and Round- 
head. On the other hand, the Puritan clergymen 
compared the severity of their lives with those of the 
Virginia clergy, carousing in taverns, attendants upon 
horse-races and cock-fights, and ultimately made ame- 
nable to the law for drunkenness. Many of the Virginia 
rectors were exceptions, and lived most exemplary 
lives ; but others were sent over to the colonial livings, 
their salaries assured by law, and themselves thus made 
independent of their parishioners. In vain the Vir- 
ginians at times petitioned for the appointment of an 
American bishop to correct these " wolves in sheep's 
clothing," who " rather by their dissoluteness destroy 
than feed their flocks." The Established church was 
the product of a state deaf to distant colonies. 

The first people of Massachusetts Bay had fled to 
escape this state church, but they soon evolved a church 
state, membership in the one being contingent on mem- 
bership in the other. " Casting out heretics " was as man- 
datory on the new as on the old state, and persecution 
raged in both sections. If Massachusetts forbade the 
ritual of the Established church, Virginia fined Puritans 
who preached within her borders. Each persecuted the 
Quaker, or "broadbrim," as John Adams called him.^ 
The Baptist also suffered in both North and South. 
Only two years before independence was declared, five 

1 Whittier describes these persecutions in the third, fourth, and fifth 
stanzas of "The Pastoral Letter." Thomas Jefferson, in his "Notes on 
Virginia," cites the statutes of that colony against the Quaker. 



4 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

or six clergymen were in close jail in Virginia for pub- 
lishing their doctrines, and James Madison was out of 
patience with this " diabolical, hell-conceived principle 
of persecution." ^ 

In New York, the history of Peter Stuyvesant fining 
non-attendants on the Dutch Reformed (or Dutch Cal- 
vinist) church was repeated by Governor Fletcher, 
under English rule, arranging a tax for building Estab- 
lished churches and paying their clergymen. The strug- 
gle in that colony between this state church and the 

•dissenters, chiefly Presbyterians, continued as a dis- 
turbing element far into the Revolution. The first fifty 
years of the history of South Carolina witnessed a con- 
stant struggle between the Established churchmen and 
the Scotch Presbyterians, during which the former suc- 
ceeded in barring, for a time, the latter from seats in 
the provincial Assembly. The union of church and 
state never held in Pennsylvania, where the population 
was so divided among Quakers, Presbyterians, and the 
numerous sects of the Germans. 

Since the ruling element of whatever sect came 
from England, the Roman Catholic could not expect 

. toleration. Until the time of the Revolution, New York 
prohibited the exercise of office by priest or Jesuit on 
penalty of perpetual imprisonment, an attempt to es- 
cape being punishable by death. Maryland, although 
Roman Catholic by foundation and by the faith of a 
majority of her citizens, was given a Protestant church 
system in 1692.^ Virginia was especially severe toward 



^ Gay's " Madison," p. 13. 

'^ See Rowland's "Charles Carroll of Carrollton." Vol. I., pp. 4-33. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 5 

Roman Catholics, and even Rhode Island at times 
refused them the right of the franchise. 

As migration to Massachusetts and Connecticut in- 
creased, tremendous pressure for citizenship was brought 
to bear on the church state and the " half-way covenant " 
was agreed upon. It granted church membership and 
citizenship privileges without the prerequisites of repent- 
ance and conversion. Many clergymen refused to abide 
by it, and Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his 
pastorate at Northampton, Massachusetts, after twenty- 
four years of service. A little later, tithes were per- 
mitted to be paid to the Established churches in Massa- 
chusetts. Yet toleration made such slow progress 
that so late as 1760 in that colony there were 306 
Congregational churches and but 59 of all other denomi- 
nations, while the membership was as five to one. The 
state church in Georgia gradually fell into such ill repute 
that John Wesley, in 1736, estimated the dissenters at 
one-third the entire population, and in Virginia the 
proportion was thought to be one-half. Hence in the 
southern colonies the Revolution was accompanied, if 
not engendered, by a struggle for religious freedom. ^ 
Elsewhere the fear of an American bishop and an 
established church being foisted on the people became 
one of the standing complaints against England in the 
rising tide of the Revolution. ^ The sending officially 

1 Jefferson has claimed much credit for the divorce of church and state 
in Virginia. Morse's "Jefferson," p. 45. Madison is entitled to a share. 
Gay's " Madison," pp. 66-70. 

2 One of the English caricatures shows the reception which would be 
accorded to a bishop in America. The " Annual Register " (London) for 
1765, p. 108, contains Bishop Butler's plan for an American episcopacy. 
Franklin wrote an essay on Toleration in Old and New England. See his 




PKOliABLii RECKI'TIUN UK A.N AMERICAN BlSHOP 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 7 

of a Roman Catholic bishop to the French in Canada 
in 1766 seemed to give some foundation to this fear. 

With these narrow contests and this persecution in a 
new world Frankhn had little sympathy. He said : 
"When religious people quarrel about religion, or 
hungry people about their victuals, it looks as if they 
had not much of either among them."^ 

He was much more concerned about the race differ- 
ences, and the probable length of time necessary to 
evolve a harmonious people from this mass of inherited 
prejudices. He regretted especially the non-assimilation 
of the Germans in Pennsylvania. " Few of their chil- 
dren know English. They import many books from 
Germany ; and of the six printing offices in the prov- 
ince, two are entirely German, two half German and 
half English, and but two entirely English." Adver- 
tisements in the Philadelphia newspapers were in both 
English and German, as were the street signs. Legal 
papers were allowed to be written in either language, 
and Frankhn sarcastically predicted that it would be 
necessary in time to have interpreters in the state Assem- 
bly to tell the one half what the other half said. Other 
writers testified to the superstition of the lower class of 
these Germans ; that one might see frequently a bag of 
salt tied to a horse's mane to keep the witches away. 
A petty warfare went on between them and the Scotch. 
Galloway once wrote to Franklin that the Presby- 
terians of Lancaster county objected to the election of 

"Works," Sparks's Edition, Vol. II., p. 112. Also see "Works of John 
Adams," Vol. X., p. 185. 

1 The quotations from Franklin in this chapter are taken from various 
places in Jared Sparks's " Franklin's Works " in ten volumes. 



8 THE MEAT WHO MADE THE NAT/ON- 

a candidate for sheriff because he had recently come 
from Germany. When he attempted to serve process, 
they assaulted him, cut off the ears of his horse, and 
compelled him to flee for his life, yet they went un- 
punished. At all times a certain antipathy was shown 
by the Pennsylvania Quakers toward the Presbyterians, 
whom they associated with the persecuting Congrega- 
tionalists in New England. The Quakers wished to treat 
the Indians kindly ; the Scotch and Scotch-Irish wished 
to discipline them. The " Paxton (Paxtang) war " be- 
tween these factions threatened to add white to Indian 
bloodshed until Franklin assumed a dictatorship, and 
put an end to it whilst the terrified English governor 
lay cowering in Franklin's house. 

Germans were introduced also into New York 
through Governor Fletcher, but comparatively • few 
settled in that colony.^ Yet it had fully as discordant 
an element in the Netherlanders, or Dutch, along the 
Hudson, who had been brought under EngHsh control 
in 1664. Kalm 2 pronounced them " unhospitable, and 
never disposed to oblige beyond the prospect of interest " ; 
and, since they regarded the New Englanders as influen- 
tial in their subjugation, "their first and greatest malice 
is toward them; while the difference in their natural 
disposition and the peculiarities in the manners and 

1 They were commonly called " Dutch," possibly because they were of 
Teutonic blood, although they came from the Rhine district of Germany 
and not from the Netherlands. By contact with the English language, 
the present mixture known as " Pennsylvania Dutch " has arisen. The 
Germans have made an excellent although conservative contribution to the 
citizenship of Pennsylvania. 

^ Peter Kalm, the Swedish botanist, made observations on the people 
as well as the flora of North America during his visit in 1748. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

y 

customs of both parties render them obnoxious each to 
the other, and afford an infinite fund to a c^enius for 

"LoTDTTr'"'"""^" '" ^^'^ j^->^ kJ::":/:; 

Low Dutch, Germans, Engl.sh, Scotch, Irish, and New 
Englanders, whose national manners, customs, and cha" 
acter are stUI preserved, especially among the lower 
classes of people, who have little intercourse among any 
but those of the,r own nation " But not alone race an,^ 
mostty produced isolation and decentralization If i.ue 
nor migration separated friends and neighbors, sectional" 
feehng n.mediately sprang up. When the southward 
movement peopled the valleys of western Virginia and 
No.th Carolma with Pennsylvanians,! the Colonial 
M«Sa..uc of Philadelphia pronounced the state Zve 

allowecl a free passage to those accustomed to vice and 

Added to these discordant race elements was the 

generally undesirable class known as "indented ser 

vants^ Many of them had been redeemed from En<.- 

ish, Scotch, and German prisons; others belonged t°o 

he nnprovident class, and had become indebted for 

the.r passage-money; only a few would make good 

enra-F .rl""'" "''<='^ ""^ "-« -"' «- 

tion T^°'' , '""■ ""'^""= "''^ "^i-'y'^ P'^"'a- 
lons. They frequently escaped to other colonies and 

the frontier, committing crimes, and causing much ex- 
pense m returning them to those to whom they had 

from Pennsylvania. ThrS; „f fj°^''"'; "''-> »'"= "'" »"B'-'«1 
independence "wer.nea!l,2rscjh ""=, ""'''•"''"S "declaration of 
from colonies farther no"h " """ """"<'»"« »1>" had come 





lO THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATION 

been bound. ^ They caused annoyance to neighboring 
colonies and thus added to the feeling already wrought 
to a high pitch by the numerous boundary disputes. 

'SlSlON SHURLOCiC^x 
^-isl §.. All mafters of vefTch, and others, are forbid to 
/carry them, or cither of ihein, awa;, as the/ fhall anfwcr 
f, it at their peril. ' . ' \ 

Ran away, on the firfl of ^ 

M.irch inft. fiom the fubfcriber, on Ti- 
nicum IQanii, in Ghcftcr county, an Irifh 
fervant intl, about 16 years old, uained l 
Jofeph Muliin, about five fret high, 
lliort brown hair, black eyes, thin face, 
down look, and has but very little to 
fay } by hi» behaviour he may be taken \ 
for 3 fool — Jiad on when he went away, an old blanket coat, A 
^ind hcmefpun broiwn cloih j«»cket, wi(h a red lining, green J 
troufers, with patclies on the knees, white yarn ftockings, 
hall worn fiioes, w!th ftrings in them, and an old flo^jp'd 
hat. Whoever will bring Ir.m home, Ihall receive Tiutnty 
Sbiilirt^s reward, and all rcafoaablc ch^rot-s paid, by 

Jofeph Penrofe. h 
RUN away Irom the fub- 

fciibfr, in Saflafras Neck, Cecil Coun- 
ty, Muyjand, a ftrvant man named i 
Jofeph Edwards. He was bom in Entr- 1 
lnnd, pretends to hare been bred up to / 
the care of hor(es, and to underitand the 
nifHnHgcnu-nt and breakmg of coirs, is a 
talkative impertinent fellow, about i^y 
t .-_w«J l_ fe t. fwarth ^y ^j« o J exi''*^ « » — • 

When the charters were first issued to various com- 
panies for planting colonies in the new world, no sur- 

1 In Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette of Nov. i, 1750, the following 
advertisement appears under the heading of " Runaway Servant " : 

" Also another servant man, named William Stewart, of a middle size, 



BENJAMIN- FRANKLIN 1 1 

veys had been made and parallels of latitude were 
frequently used for boundaries. The common practice 
was to grant all the seacoast between certain parallels, 
extending " up into the land from sea to sea, west and 
northwest," or "towards the South Sea (Pacific ocean) 
or westward." But many colonizing schemes failed ; 
others took their places ; and, since every encourage- 
ment was offered, the same land was given in subsequent 
grants until in some places the land was said to be 
covered five deep with these claims.^ 

The charter of Virginia, the earliest, was naturally the 
most loosely drawn, and that colony construed " up into 
the Land throughout from Sea to Sea, West and North- 
west " to entitle her to all land lying west of the other 
colonies and north of her southern boundary. But such 
interpretation was disputed by Massachusetts, whose 
land extended "throughout the Mayne Landes there 
from the Atlantick and Westerne Sea and Ocean on the 
East Parte to the South Sea on the West Parte," and by 
Connecticut, which had been granted all lands " as the 
Line of the Massachusetts Colony . . . from the said 
Narraganset Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the 

short brown hair, wore a cap, with a scar on one of his cheeks : Had 
on a blue stuff coat, with a red plush cape, lined with dark colour'd linnen, 
a brown jacket lined with the same, metal buttons, breeches much the 
same, shoes and stockings, about i6 or 17 years of age. Whoever appre- 
hends the said servants, and secures them, so as their master may have 
them again, shall have Twenty Shillings for each, and reasonable charges, 
paid by me. Robert Adams." 

In the same paper rewards were offered for twenty-one runaway ser- 
vants, mostly Irish and English. One negro was among the number, but 
he had run away with a white servant. 

^ These charters may be found in Poore's " Constitutions and Charters." 
A resume of the boundary disputes may be found in Donaldson's " Public 
Domain," issued as Mouse Exec. Doc. 47, part 4, 46th Cong., 3d Sess. 



12 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

West Part." New York also resisted Virginia's preten- 
sions to the western land on the ground of a treaty with 
the Six Nations which gave to that province all the land 
lying between the sources of the Great Lakes and the 
Cumberland Mountains. But New York was involved in 
more pressing difficulties on her eastern side because of 
the uncertain outlines of the charter given to the Duke 
of York. In the ensuing controversies, Ethan Allen 
and his Green Mountain Boys decided the question so 
far as a portion of the land was concerned by erecting 
an independent state ; but they caused some alarm dur- 
ing the revolution lest they might ally themselves with 
Canada.! Usually when concerted action was needed, 
these conflicts broke out afresh. 

The two Carolinas clashed over their common boun- 
dary line. Georgia was almost entirely carved out of 
South Carolina territory, and so engendered a quarrel 
which was not settled until the Revolutionary war. 

Regardless of protests, Maryland had been given land 
claimed by Virginia, extending on the north to the 40th 
degree of latitude and on the east to the Atlantic. But, 
in turn, the grant given to William Penn deprived 
Maryland of a peninsula now the state of Delaware. 

1 When Ethan Allen captured Ticonderoga he was still an outlaw with 
a price upon his head by proclamation of the royal governor of New York. 
The contest between the Green Mountain Boys and New York was really 
connected with the struggle for liberty. The epitaph of one of Allen's 
associates reads : 

" Here William French his Body lies 
For Murder his blood for Vengeance cries 
King Georg the third his Tory crew 
tha with a bawl his head Shot threw 
For liberty and his Countrys Good 
he Lost his Life his Dearest blood " 

— Moore's "Memoir of Colonel Ethan Allen," p. 86. 



BENJAMIN- FRANKLIN 1 3 

Penn also claimed that "the 40th degree" of north lati- 
tude meant to begin at the 39th, and therefore demanded 
a strip of land one degree wide the entire length of 
Maryland, and including the desirable site of the city of 
Philadelphia. The dispute ran for half a century, until 
a compromise was effected and two competent surveyors, 
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were brought from 
England to run the line between the two provinces 
( 1 763-1 767). Since it so happened at a later time that 
Pennsylvania and all states north found slavery unprofit- 
able and forbade it, whilst Maryland and all states south 
found it profitable and fostered it, the Mason and Dixon 
line became, at a later period, the great dividing line 
between slavery and freedom. 

Penn's charter located the western limit of Pennsyl- 
vania five degrees (about three hundred miles) from the 
eastern line — the Delaware river; but upon the decision 
whether the eastern or western bend of the Delaware 
should be taken as a starting point in measuring would 
depend whether the junction of the rivers forming the 
Ohio belonged to Pennsylvania or Virginia. The con- 
tention caused arrests, and even bloodshed, and was 
raging furiously when the oncoming Revolution was 
demanding harmony and peace. Nor was Penn more 
fortunate in his northern boundary. In his grant of 
1664 he had secured a quit-claim from the Duke of 
York, but Connecticut, lapsing her claim to the territory 
of present New York, resumed it beyond the Delaware, 
and offered land for sale in a strip of northern Penn- 
sylvania, almost half that province. Settlers who pur- 
chased land from Pennsylvania in " Wyoming " or 
"Susquehanna," as this disputed portion was called. 



14 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

found other settlers on the same tract with titles issued 
by Connecticut. Lawsuits, ejectments, and battles 
marked this controversy, continuing even after the 
Revolution, although Pennsylvania was given the land in 
1782. 

In the light of these conflicts one may appreciate the 
belief of England that they would remain an insur- 
mountable barrier to any colonial union. A member of 
the Commons said in debate : " The colonists have been 
obliged to recur very frequently to the jurisdiction here 
to settle the disputes among their own governments. 
New Hampshire and Connecticut have been in blood 
about their differences ; Virginia and Maryland rose in 
arms against each other." The belief was common that 
only the restraining hand of the mother country pre- 
vented a general civil war. England saw another dis- 
turbing element in the commercial competition. When 
New York endeavored to secure a monopoly of the 
trade with the Six Nations, neighboring colonies gave a 
grudging assistance, and Virginia tried a counter treaty. 
Commercial jealousy was a moving cause of the failure 
of the colonies to support each other properly in the 
Indian wars, and this very failure cut still deeper the 
lines of ill feeling. New York hoped in time, with 
her superior harbor, to surpass the larger city of Phila- 
delphia and also to gain some of the trade which entered 
Narragansett and Massachusetts bays. Samuel Rhoads 
sounded the alarm of Philadelphia, and suggested canals 
as the only means of keeping the interior trade from 
"Baltimore Towne." ^ England simply took advantage 

1 In a letter to Franklin. Sparks's " Franklin," Vol. VII., p. 519. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 15 

of this rivalry when she closed the port of Boston in the 
Revolution. 

A few of the causes have been given which justified 
Dr. Joseph Warren in saying that until the time of the 
Stamp Act (1765) "the colonies were ever at variance 
and foolishly jealous of each other." Frankhn thought 
this jealousy so strong that although a common defence 
had long been felt necessary, they could not form one 
among themselves nor agree to ask the mother country 
to establish one. He found further barriers in "differ- 
ent governors, different forms of government, different 
laws, different interests, and some of them different 
religious persuasions and different manners." ^ He had 
frequent experience with these local differences. Small 
wonder that when he read the eulogy of Voltaire on 
the peaceful city of the Quakers where " Discord and 
Controversy are unknown," he should have pronounced 
it fortunate that while they sat for their portrait to the 
able painter, he viewed them at such a favorable dis- 
tance ; since they were " torn by faction, religious and 
civil." 

Against this multitude of decentralizing tendencies 
there was the offset of a common danger, common pri- 
vations, and the feeling of a "destiny" for this new 
world untainted by the ills of decaying old world gov- 
ernment. The English formed the ruling class in each 
colony and so became a centralizing element. They 
spoke a common tongue, inherited similar ideas and 
tendencies, and were united in a common voluntary 
exile from "home." Legislative measures were sent 

1 Sparks's "Franklin," Vol. IV., p. 41. 



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, A neat aflortment ot Knropcan and Ealr-India eocd<^ im. 
a l.ud vciicl; aI,o Kn,:nh ;>.,,•:.. „ . .. :...^ '.,..: "' 




For B A R 1] ADOS 










Brigantine 



\Giit. ':«^ 



V, 



1 ii 

Mr/tr^i^^ / _ Conniiajidcr ; 

Lying at Morris M(>rrii'i 
vshaiiT, and has good accom- 
modations for pafTongers. 
For freight or paiTagc, apply to James Wetl, or fiid 
commander on board. \ 

"*" -v.] T7 SfTd^bT'l:"') r7rRirF T'W^jly^TWTjT^ 

At hi!. Iiaiifi-, on Arch-ftrcct Wha-.ft', opp.^fite Mr. Hazard'i, 
H () 1 CE Claret in Bottles ; and a Variety ot European ani 
Irn.!].! Goods, 



N D O N, 
The Ship 
Prince WILLIy]M, 

Jchn Mitchell Mufter j 

Off; /y^.y c/-" her Lcaaii'Z is ril- 

reaJy t>7?^agcii, avd j'ht luiit- 

fail ii:ith all coifjcnifit Speiii, 

I For fr fight orPaJfage, ap- 

Abfl James, or fajJ ^lalfff. ^ 

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« u..,r. K„„r, ,— > 'J' '"■ 




pl y !0 Joi'N ...Ml I H , 



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1 



AdVERTISEMENT.S M<()M FR,\NKL]N'b PENNSYLVANIA GAZETrE 



BENJAMIiV FRANKLIN- 1 7 

" home " for approval or rejection by the king. Frank- 
lin spoke of being "ordered home" and testified that 
natives of Britain in the colonies " were always treated 
with a particular regard ; to be an Old-England 
man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and 
gave a kind of rank among us."^ It is one of the 
strange inconsistencies in the evolution of the nation 
that the treatment received from this beloved mother 
country was the great agency which finally overcame 
the many discordant elements and prepared the way 
for concerted action. 

To show Franklin's appreciation of these obstacles to 
union one need only examine the efforts he made to 
remove them in a peaceful way. In 1744, during the 
French-Indian wars, a Spanish privateer sailed up the 
Delaware, plundering plantations, and threatening Phil- 
adelphia. The city was defenceless owing to the un- 
willingness of the Quaker element in the Assembly to 
vote money for warlike purposes.^ Franklin took 
advantage of the alarm to plead for a defensive union 
of the city and province, wrote a pamphlet on the sub- 
ject, and in 1747 organized near ten thousand armed 
" Associators," who accomplished thus by private means 
what had always been thwarted in the Assembly. De- 
clining the honor of a colonelcy in the Philadelphia 

^ The preeminence of the English element in early America is shown 
in the present forms of local and general government, laws, and " insti- 
tutions." 

2 In his " Autobiography,'' Franklin, who saw the good intention beneath 
the apparently obstinate nature of the Quakers, relates witli much relish 
stories of their voting to buy gunpowder untler the guise of "grain," and 
his suggesting that they buy cannon under the pretence of a " fire-engine." 
Sparks's "Franklin," Vol. I., p. 154. 
C 



1 8 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Associators, because he lacked military training, Frank- 
lin became a common soldier and stood guard on the 
temporary fortifications which had been hastily erected 
on the river below the city. 

When the women of Philadelphia presented flags to 
the Associators, Franklin supplied the mottoes which 
were painted on them. In his newspaper, the Pcmi- 
sylvania Gazette, he advocated a more extended union 
of the middle provinces against the French, and closed 
the article with a rude cut of a snake in thirteen 
separate joints, with the suggestive motto "Join or 
die ! " 

In 1754, he attended a meeting of commissioners from 
seven states held at Albany, New York, for the purpose 
of treating with the Indians. He suggested a perma- 
nent union for such purposes, and, of the several plans 
suggested looking to that end, his was adopted. But 
nothing came of it. He said the American assemblies 
thought it had too much (kingly) prerogative, and in 
England it was considered too democratic. From that 
country came a counter proposition that the money 
needed for defence should be raised through a tax 
levied by Parliament ; but Franklin replied that being 
without representation in Parliament the colonists could 
not be taxed by that body.^ 

Here the matter rested until brought to a test by the 
appearance on the throne in 1760 of George III., the 

1 Numerous instances attest that this was no new position for many 
of the colonies. As early as 1670, the members of the Massachusetts 
Court refused to address Parliament concerning a grievance lest they 
should thus admit some power of that body over them. The " Diary " of 
John Evelyn, a member of the Board of Trade and Plantations, mentions 
the plans considered in 1671 for securing the dependency of New England. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 19 

last king of England who attempted to control the poli- 
tics of the country. Endowed with a headstrong nature, 
filled with exalted opinions of the king's power and pre- 
rogative, he willingly followed the advice of his mother 
that he indeed should be king ; that he should be unin- 
fluenced by the old Whig families or the Tory party. 
He determined, therefore, to build up a party for him- 
self, although in so doing he was obliged to meet parlia- 
mentary corruption with corruption ; to oppose needed 
reforms ; to listen to unfortunate schemes ; and to gain 
partisans by pensions and titles. 

The unpopularity of the Peace of Paris in 1763, which 
ended the struggle for the possession of the Mississippi 
valley and drove the French from the continent of 
North America, produced a crisis in English politics 
which gave the new king opportunity of testing his 
strength if he could but find cabinet officials sufficiently 
subservient. One man had long been fitting himself 
lor such an opportunity. George Grenville, brother-in- 
law to Pitt, had risen rapidly from one government post 
to another through a rare courage, business ability, and 
persistence, although devoid of that tact and judgment 
vhich should characterize the successful statesman.' 
Showing no fixed connection with any party and appar- 
ently no great capacity beyond official routine, he seemed 
an ideal candidate for the purposes of the king, and was 
invested with the dual office of First Lord of the Treas- 
ury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He brought to 
his position a knowledge of colonial affairs and an in- 
dustry which spoke well for his conscientiousness, but 
augured ill for the peace of the colonies. The war 
just closed had added ^63,000,000 to the national 



20 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

debt,^ and this grave situation gave Grenville an oppor- 
tunity of showing his skill. 

Although Franklin claimed on behalf of the colonists 
that the war had begun in the north over the boundary 
between Canada and Nova Scotia and in the west over 
the French trading with the Indians — two questions in 
which the remaining colonies had no direct interest 
— nevertheless Grenville thought America as a whole 
should be made to contribute toward the payment of 
this war debt. The trade regulations already existing 
might bring in sufficient revenue if they could be 
enforced and the extensive system of smuggling be 
stopped. 

"The government" is to the masses an undefined, 
shadowy thing, incapable of suffering and of reciprocity, 
and with rights protected by political, and not by moral, 
laws. A wrong against the government carries no 
moral punishment; it need only escape the political 
punishment attached. A feeling thus common to man- 
kind held especially strong among the American colo- 
nists. They were separated by six weeks of travel from 
the seat of authority; punishment was likely to fail from 
the vicissitudes of communication ; many of the chief 
customs officers resided habitually in England ; custom- 
house officials were appointed and paid directly by the 
crown ; persons accused of violations of custom laws 
were tried by admiralty court and often without a jury. 
Quite easily the colonists came to consider these offi- 

1 Mulhall's "Statistics," p. 262. Adam Smith ("Wealth of Nations," 
Bk. IV., Ch. VII.) estimated the increase at more than ;i^ 90,000,000, but 
this included the additional land tax and sums borrowed from the sinking 
fund, (jrenville placed the increase at over ;i^70,C)00,ooo. The total na- 
tional debt of Great Britain at this time was /" 14 7,000,000. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 21 

cials as hirelings, to deceive whom was a credit ; as 
easily, their courts became sources of oppression to be 
evaded by any means. Thus the colonists readily grew 
into the habit of smuggling, invited by the thousand 
miles of coast, and despite the efforts of the customs 
guards. It was estimated that of some articles, tea, 
for instance, not one pound in ten consumed in the 
colonies paid duty. The serenity with which the people 
viewed these evasions of the law furnishes a fresh illus- 
tration of the difificulty of enforcing any measure beyond 
the disposition of the people to obey it. 

As an aid to the revenue officers in attempting to 
execute their unpleasant duty, an act of Charles II. 
was declared to be applicable, authorizing the use of 
"writs of assistance" in searching for smuggled goods. 
These differed from the ordinary search-warrants in not 
specifying the house to be searched, and need not be 
returned for an accounting to the court from which 
they were issued. The searcher could also demand 
the assistance of any one in his odious task. One of 
the inherited rights claimed by the colonists was that 
every man's house was his castle as long as he remained 
peacefully within ; hence James Otis, the Massachusetts 
lawyer, claimed that the writs of assistance were gen- 
eral, antiquated, and even illegal in the colonies. 

Notwithstanding such aids to the officers, so ex- 
tensive was the smuggling that for thirty years it 
had cost annually over ;C'jooo to collect less than 
;^3000 revenue from America. In vain were the 
officers of men-of-war along the coast given power 
of revenue officers. Being untrained to such service, 
they made costly blunders, and added little to the 



22 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

receipts. As a further aid, Grenville decided to main- 
tain a standing army in America, and a pretext was 
easily found in the Indian rising just after the war had 
closed. Franklin saw the hollowness of this pretext. 
He had heard General Braddock boast, "These savages 
may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw Ameri- 
can militia, but upon the king's troops and discipline, 
sir, it is impossible they should make any headway." ^ 
Braddock's fearful experience later had proven the 
inefficiency of the regulars as a protection against the 
Indians. The provinces could take care of themselves 
without the aid of the twenty regiments which Grenville 
proposed to put over them. On the effective Bouquet 
expedition, there had been but 300 regulars to over 1000 
Pennsylvanians. Moreover, in the late war the colonists 
had contributed 25,000 men, armed and equipped, had 
built forts and defences, had spent some ^80,000 each 
year on the war, and if Great Britain had contributed in 
like proportion, there would have been no increase in 
the national debt. Parliament had acknowledged this 
undue contribution, and had repaid some of the colonies 
about two-fifths of it. 

An increase of the armed force in the colonies would 
mean an increased expenditure and an increased debt. 
To avoid this, Grenville conceived the idea of an addi- 
tional tax. Such a tax would also settle the disputed 
question of the right of Parliament to tax the colonists. 
Franklin is said to have compared Grenville's making 
the colonists pay for an army to be stationed over them 

^ Connected with this Braddock expedition were four men who became 
generals in the Revolutionary war — Washington, Lee, tjates, and Stephen. 
Familiarity with the boasted " regular " had bred proverbial contempt. 



BENJAAf/iV FRANKLIN 23 

to the man who wished to thrust a red-hot poker through 
another's foot, and, being refused, demanded ]:)ay for 
heating the poker. 

Seeking some easy and equitable form of taxation 
which would fall on property, not interfere with existing 
private laws, and be inexpensive and sure of collection, 
Grenville finally revived the plan of a stamp tax. It 
was a form familiar to England for almost a century 
and levied at various times by several American colo- 
nies. Not a protest was heard against it in England, 
and a seemingly unfortunate postponement until the 
next session of Parliament gave a year's warning to 
the colonies before it was brought up for action. But 
the colonies were torn by internal dissensions and had 
no agency to act for them. Some Assemblies passed 
resolutions. Those of Massachusetts and New York 
were sent over, but withheld by the ministry lest their 
" most indecent disrespect " should draw from Parliament 
"votes of censure and severity toward the offenders." 

The resolutions of Pennsylvania, ignoring the claims 
of Grenville and Parliament, were entrusted to Franklin 
in addition to the more important petition against the 
proprietors, and he embarked on his third voyage to 
England as has been described. The disturbed condi- 
tion of Pennsylvania at this time ^ made him appreciate 

1 He had just been defeated for the Assembly. That body had refused 
to pay the expenses of his trip to England, and the necessary sum had to 
be raised by popular subscription. Several stanzas burlesquing P>anklin's 
invention of a stove were said to have been written at this time. The last 
one runs : 

" Let candor tlien write on his urn; 
'Here lies the renowned inventor, 
Whose flame to the skies ought \.o l)urn, 
But inverted descends to the centre.' '' 



24 THE MEM WHO MADE THE NATION 

keenly the compliment of an escort of three hundred 
horsemen to Chester and the good wishes of the friends 
who accompanied him on board. He reached England 
in December, 1764, and joined the agents of the other 
colonies in protesting to Grenville against the proposed 
Stamp Tax.^ 

The Stamp Act, if its results be considered, was the 
most important legislation of the century ; yet Burke, 
who was in the gallery of the House of Commons, 
testified that he had " never heard a more languid 
debate. No more than two or three gentlemen, as I 
remember, spoke against the act and that with great 
reserve and remarkable temper. There was but one 
division in the whole progress of the bill ; and the minor- 
ity did not reach to more than thirty-nine or forty. In 
the House of Lords, I do not recollect that there was any 
debate or division at all. I am sure there was no pro- 
test. In fact, the affair passed with so very little noise 
that in town they scarcely knew the nature of what you 
were doing." ^ So little question was there about the 
justice or advisability of the measure. 

The 117 sections of the Stamp Act designated forty- 
three kinds of legal documents which should be written 
on stamped paper; and also provided for stamps on 
advertisements, almanacs, cards, dice, pamphlets, and 

^ The maintenance in England of colonial agents, with duties much like 
modern consuls, was quite common among the colonies. In addition to 
Pennsylvania, Franklin was later appointed agent for his native colony, 
Massachusetts; for New Jersey, throuj^h the influence of his son; for 
Georgia, possiljly through his friend Whitefield, the preacher. His com- 
bined salary amounted to ;^I200, but being dependent on the Assemblies 
and under a governor's veto, was ni)t regularly received. 

'•^ Hansard's "Debates," Vol. i6, p. 40. Burke's "Works," Bohn Edi- 
tion, Vol. I., p. 421. See also Burke's "Annual Register." 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



25 



newspapers. The stamps varied in value from a half- 
penny on a small newspaper to ^10 (about fifty dollars) 
on the admission of an attorney to the bar. A college 
diploma must bear a stamp worth ^2. The execution 




Stamps of 1765 

of the act was given to the Stamp Commissioners of 
England to appoint supervisors and distributers of the 
stamps and stamped paper in America.^ 

No one in England could have foreseen the rebellion 
which followed and still less have divined the cause. 
True, the act bore the startling title that it was just and 
necessary to raise a revenue in the plantations of 
America " for the expenses of defending, protecting 
and securing " them, and that the Parliament gave and 
granted the duties described therein ; but a port duty 
act of the previous year, bearing the same title, had not 
been resisted. Franklin always insisted that the Ameri- 

^ The full text of the Stamp Act may be found in Hart's " American 
History Leaflets," No. 21. Also in Macdonald's "Select Charters." The 
originals of the stamps shown above are in the Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington. 



26 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

cans could " as well have hindered the sun's setting " 
as to have prevented the passage of the act and likewise 
claimed that he had done all in his power to prevent 
the birth of this " mother of mischief," as he called it. 
But when it had become a law, he readily assented 
to Grenville's suggestion that it would be more con- 
venient and agreeable to appoint American agents to 
distribute the stamps than to send over strangers for 
that purpose. He named his friend and supporter, 
John Hughes, of Philadelphia. The other colonial 
agents also named distributers for their respective 
colonies.-^ 

Pennsylvania fell into a fit of rage over this action of 
her agent ; accused him of dereliction of duty in not 
preventing the passage of the act ; hinted that he had 
first solicited a stamp agency for himself, as one of 
the agents, Lee, of Virginia, had done. His house was 
threatened by a mob ; the chimes of Christ Church, 
which liad rung so joyously when the news of his safe 
arrival in England reached Philadelphia, now tolled dis- 
mally for his treachery ; and a broadside was circulated 
showing the devil whispering into his ear, " Ben, you 
shall be my agent throughout my dominions." So high 
rose the storm that Whitefield,^ who had returned to 
England, sent back letters testifying to the fidelity of 

^ Among the distributers appointed were : Messerve, for New Hamp- 
shire; Oliver, for Massachusetts; Johnston, for Rhode Island; Ingersoll, 
for Connecticut; McEvers. for New York; Coxe, for New Jersey; Hughes, 
for Pennsylvania; Mercer, for Virginia; Hood, for Maryland. A complete 
list of nineteen agents for all the American colonies was printed in the 
Pennsylvania Gazette, Aug. 22, 1765. 

- Franklin, not a church-goer, had been impressed with the preaching 
of George Whitetield on his several missionary visits to America, and a 
strong friendship had arisen between them. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 2/ 

the unfortunate agent. Galloway thought these letters 
would quiet "the Presbyterians." 

In the riotous times which followed the arrival of the 
stamps in the colonies, the action of Pcnns)'lvania was 
moderate, although the cannon at the fort were spiked. 
Franklin had suggested to Charles Thomson, of Phila- 
delphia, the lighting of candles (of industry) during the 
night which would follow the Stamp Act ; but Thomson 
replied from the colonies that Franklin was much more 
likely to hear of "works of darkness." Rebellion was 
evident in the blazing piles of stamps and stamped paper; 
in the stamjDS thrown overboard into the harbors ; in the 
forced resignations of stamp agents ; even in the stamps 
forcedly replaced on the ships for return to England. 
Courts were suspended ; lawyers signed agreements not 
to use the stamped paper and not to undertake suits 
brought by English merchants. A wag wrote a legal 
document on birch bark, claiming that it needed no stamp 
since it was neither skin, vellum, parchment, nor paper. 
Calm wisdom and cooperation at last suggested a Con- 
gress which met in New York to protest and to petition 
for redress. 

The twenty-six newspapers in the colonies were vitally 
interested in the stamp tax. Many suspended publica- 
tion rather than print on stamped paper, placing mourn- 
ing lines about their last issue, and using a death's 
head instead of the stamp. Others, notably the Bos- 
ton Gazette, defiantly continued publication without the 
stamps. Mr. Hall, the partner of Franklin, who edited 
the PeiDisylvania Gazette in his absence, placed mourn- 
ing borders about the last number before the act went 
into effect. On the next regular day of the Gazette he 



28 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



issued a small sheet and placed at the head " Remark- 
able Occurrences" instead of the accustomed heading:. 




On the next publication day, he used " No Stamped 
Paper to be Had," possibly hoping in this way to avoid 
punishment. 



Remarkable Occurrences, 



n 



Lj^^ 



J 



As usual in such disturbances the mob showed its 
ugly head. The governor of New York was compelled 
to deliver the stamps to the city government, and his 
chariot was burned on the Bowling Green. A lawyer 
and a physician of Rhode Island fled for refuge on 
board a ship for daring to uphold the act. The Boston 
mob raged for ten days, pillaging the houses of the state 
officers, razing a supposed stamp office, and threatening 
officials, while the captain of the militia refused to call 
out his men because his drummers were all in the mob. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 29 

Persons arrested were promptly released by their friends. 
Franklin confessed himself *' grieved to hear of such hor- 
rid disorders," and promised that the Assemblies would 
soon bring the ringleaders to punishment if they could. 
Yet when Parliament was hesitating whether to pro- 
nounce the colonies in rebellion or to withdraw the 
Stamp Act, and Franklin was called before the House 
of Commons to be questioned on the attitude of the colo- 
nists, he did not hesitate to say that personally he would 
prefer the many debts owing him at home to remain 
unrecoverable by law than to have the courts continue 
sessions by using the stamped paper. 

This examination ^ was turned into a delightful bit of 
strategy. Knowing that he was to be called, the subtle 
doctor and his friends in the House of Commons pre- 
arranged certain questions which he could answer and 
so justify the position of the colonists. The closing 
questions and replies were : 

Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans .'' 
A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of 
Great Britain. 

Q. What is now their pride.'' A. To wear their old 
clothes over again, till they can make new ones. 

These friendly questions drew the fire from the hos- 
tile inquiries, and Burke declared the whole thing re- 
minded him of a party of schoolboys examining their 
master. 

The examination may have had some influence in 
determining the repeal of the Stamp Act ; but a more 
powerful argument was found in the sudden depression 
of trade caused by the stubborn determination outlined 

1 To be found readily in any edition of Franklin's writings. 



30 THE MEN' WHO MADE THE NATION 

in the last reply of Franklin. Local " Associators " all 
over the colonics vowed to use domestic manufactures 
instead of importing them from England ; to use no 
mutton so that the wool product might be increased ; to 
practise a rigid economy ; and to stimulate American 
manufacture in every possible manner. The result was 
first felt by the London merchant, then by the English 
manufacturer, and in turn by the English workingman. 
It undoubtedly added to the labor demonstrations which 
marked the year in England.^ 

When Parliament reconvened in January, 1766, its 
tables were covered with petitions. The merchants 
asserted that a total annihilation of their trade was 
imminent ; that the colonists were not only refusing to 
buy goods but were declining to pay for those already 
purchased and shipped ; ^ that this indebtedness 
amounted to upward of four millions sterling, and its 
loss would mean ruin to many. Workmen in all kinds 
of industries petitioned for the repeal of an act which 
threw them out of employment. Some pointed to the 
experience with the island of Jamaica, where a stamp 
act was abandoned after three years of trial. For ten 
days the' debate continued in the House of Commons, 
Pitt going to the extremity of "rejoicing" that the colo- 
nies had resisted, and Grenville pleading the justice of 
the measure, but blaming its failure on the ministry 

1 "There are claimers enough of merit in obtaining the repeal. But if 
I live to see you, I will let you know what an escape we had in the he- 
ginning of the affair and how much we are obliged to what the profane 
would call luck and pious Providence." Franklin to Charles Thomson, 
"Works," Bigelow Edition, Vol. III., p. 474. 

2 Both Washington and Franklin condemned this expedient as dis- 
honorable. Franklin's " Works," Sparks Edition, Vol. VII., p. 373; " Wash- 
ington's Life and Writings," Sparks Edition, Vol. II., pp. 351, 395. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 3 1 

which had succeeded his own. He was most bitter 
toward the colonists, having moved an amendment to 
the King's address, declaring them to be in a state of 
rebellion. 

So absorbing was the great struggle over American 
affairs that " twelve, one, or two o'clock in the morning, 
were become the common dining hours of the members, 
so late it frequently was before they broke up from 
public business." Seats were ticketed at eight in the 
morning, and the attendance of members reached over 
four hundred. After many arguments "without and 
within doors," the repeal was passed by 275 to 167 and 
carried up to the House of Lords by over 200 mem- 
bers, where it passed by 43 majority. In the "Annual 
Register," Burke declared the repeal was an event that 
caused more universal joy throughout the British domin- 
ions than perhaps any other that could be remembered. 
London houses were illuminated; ships on the Thames 
displayed flags ; and church bells were rung all night. 
The London merchants had spent ^1500 on the peti- 
tions and in influencing Parliament. They now sent a 
vessel along the Atlantic coast to notify all American 
traders of the repeal, and they also gave a banquet to 
their "friends" in Parliament. 

Crowds surrounded the House of Parliament when 
the Commons adjourned after passing the repeal, and 
cheered the opposition. It was afterward reported that 
Grenville was obliged to ask protection from the mob. 
Franklin may have felt some satisfaction in these dem- 
onstrations, but he was more interested in the descrip- 
tion which Galloway sent him of the Philadelphia 
celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act. Despite 



32 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

the efforts of the moderates who patrolled the city, 
there were fireworks, illuminations, and the firing of 
cannon. The next day there was a dinner in the State 
House yard. On the king's birthday, a barge called 
the " Franklin " was drawn on four wheels through the 
streets to the river and launched. It bore a company 
up the Schuylkill to an entertainment where 380 people 
drank toasts to " Our worthy and faithful agent, Dr. 
Franklin." Pennsylvania was corrected in her estimate 
of the services of her representative. 

Parliament covered its retreat by the " Dependency 
Act," ^ which declared that Parliament " had, hath, and 
of right ought to have full power and authority to bind 
the colonies and people of America subjects of the 
Crown of Great Britain in all cases whatsoever " ; a 
declaration which Franklin declared would not be ob- 
jectionable to the colonists as long as no attempt was 
made to enforce it. But to the various attempts to 
enforce it are due the several events marking the prog- 
ress of the Revolution. 

Moreover, it was in direct opposition to the conten- 
tion of the colonists that self-representation and self- 
taxation were two inherited rights of Englishmen. 
Four years before the Stamp Act, James Otis had 
spoken public sentiment in words which became pro- 
verbial, " Taxation without representation is tyranny." 
Burke showed the impracticability of a direct represen- 
tation of the colonies in Parliament because of their 
distance,^ and Franklin in time reached the same con- 

1 Sometimes in debate called " the Declaratory .\ct." 

2 Burke's " Works," Bohn Edition, Vol. I., p. 259. Adam Smith in the 
" Wealth of Nations" (Bk. IV., Ch. VII.) advocated colonial representa- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 33 

elusion. But non-representation was too good a cry to 
be abandoned. Parliament contended that the whole 
realm was represented and not by divisions thereof. 
Proof was found in England in the several " rotten 
boroughs" without population but having representa- 
tives in Parliament, while the manufacturing cities re- 
cently built up were without representation. Of the 
nine million people in England it was estimated that 
eight million had no actual vote in electing members of 
the House of Commons. From such a system of "vir- 
tual " representation had sprung the open practice of 
buying seats in the Commons from the few voters in 
certain of the boroughs ; a practice so generally known 
that FrankHn says a roar of laughter greeted the sarcas- 
tic inquiry from a member if a definition of corruption 
were needed in the House of Commons. " An egre- 
gious farce " was his comment when the people of 
Oxford were required to receive on their knees the 
speaker's reprimand for having turned the tables and 
demanded a bribe from their representative for reelec- 
tion. He thought " the whole nation might be bought 
out of the hands of the present bidders (if he would 
offer a half million) by the very devil himself.". The 
"king's friends" fostered this venality and took every 
advantage of it.^ This state of affairs could not be 

tion, but predicted that in time the seat of empire would be transferred to 
America. In 1778, Parliament offered representation to their former colo- 
nies, but it was too late. 

1 Burke's "Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontent" (1770) 
deals largely with the practices of the king's friends. The "civil list" or 
grant to the king was ;^Soo,ooo annually; yet in 1769 his ministry asked 
for ^500,000 additional. Some asserted that part of this money was used 
for Parliamentary corruption, but could obtain no detailed account of its 
expenditure. A cartoon appeared in the London Magazine depicting 



/'?-f^'// /^ur.jf- /?/ /r.hi Frt^'i/ ftf/\)€ i/f i-^^L 




///^' ' /lU/Zi^.r cim>' l/tr /.^u/{/ . 



The Extravagance of Kino George III. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 35 

hidden from the colonists, and Franklin was justified in 
telling the government that although there had been a 
time when the colonies would have eagerly accepted 
representation, they were now indifferent to it, and the 
time was rapidly approaching when they would refuse it. 
In the debate on the repeal of the Stamp Act, Lord 
Lyttleton in opposition had declared " the same reason- 
ing extends to all acts of Parliament. The Americans 
will find themselves crampt by the Act of Navigation 
and oppose that, too." The prediction proved true. 
That they had not already opposed by force the various 
efforts to regulate their trade was due not alone to their 
being unaccustomed to revolutionary methods, but also to 
the fact that this practice of commercial restriction was 
but a part of the economic doctrine of the age. Adam 
Smith had not yet written his " Wealth of Nations," 
and the whole economic system was based on monopo- 
lies, restrictions, and direct returns. In common with 
other colony-planting nations. Great Britain made her 
American colonies profitable by requiring exports and 
imports to pass through the mother country ; by forbid- 
ding the sale of certain " enumerated " commodities,^ 
save in England ; by prohibiting the importation of 
molasses and sugar from any except the British West 
Indies ; by forbidding the exportation or even inter- 
colonial transportation of American cloth and hats so 
that a market might be fostered for the manufactures 
of England ; by prohibiting the erection of steel forges 

King George as a child demanding " more supplies" from his mother, 
Britannia. 

1 The list of enumerated articles was changed from time to time, 
but generally included tobacco, molasses, sugar, rice, copper, and naval 
stores. 



36 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

or mills for slitting iron into suitable lengths from 
which nails could be made by hand. These acts were 
framed at different times during a hundred years, and 
one law was often necessary to supplement or explain 
another, until absurdity was reached ^ and the colonial 
trade must have been entirely cut off if the laws had 
been enforced and no compensations given. 

But there were compensations. The acts fostered 
colonial shipbuilding and gave employment to colonial 
sailors. If the importation of- molasses was burdened 
by duties interfering with the rum manufacture in New 
England, rum was also on the protected list. If certain 
"enumerated" articles could be sold only in England, 
others equally cultivated in the colonies were not enu- 
merated, and some were even encouraged by a bounty. 
If England had a monopoly on the sale of colonial 
tobacco, the colonies had a counter monopoly, since 
England could buy tobacco nowhere else. Drawbacks ^ 
mitigated the severity of some of these regulations, as 
also did tacit connivance at evasions and subterfuges. 
Vessels were allowed openly to carry on forbidden trade, 
and sometimes restricted articles were conveyed under 
the fiction of necessary ship stores. 

For such reasons the colonists endured for years 
these restrictions on their commerce, until England tried 
to direct them into channels for raising a revenue. 
However tyrannical they were when enforced, England 

1 Iron and steel mills were declared common nuisances on account of 
their noise — in thinly populated America ! To such absurdity grew the 
practice of "extending" acts originally applicable to England alone. 

2 A drawback is a certain sum repaid by the government upon tl c 
exportation of goods on which an import duty had been paid when they 
were brought into the country. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 37 

framed them originally for the purpose of retaining a 
monopoly over colonies planted on ground belonging to 
her by right of discovery and founded through her 
agencies. 

The agitation resulting from the Stamp Act dispelled 
some of the ignorance so frequently manifested con- 
cerning the American colonies. The blunders of much 
of the legislation had been due to this ignorance. It 
in turn was due largely to the careless and deficient 
reports sent over by the royal governors, many of 
whom were appointed for political reasons and were 
shifted from one post to another. Franklin enjoyed the 
witty remark of Soame Jenyns on being approached 
with some measure for the colonies, " I can hav^e no 
possible objection to it, provided we have hitherto 
signed nothing to the contrary." ^ 

The Stamp Act riots in America went unpunished, 
and steps were taken by Parliament not only to remit 
the fines imposed for using unstamped paper, but also 
to compensate those who had lost property at the 
hands of the mob ; yet the Dependency Act remained 
among the statutes, and it was unlikely that England 
would consent to remain defied by her subjects and 
abandon attempts to tax them. Extremists like James 

1 The plan of Dean Tucker for protecting the colonists from the Indians 
will illustrate the many visionary schemes for dealing with prol^lems at a 
distance of three thousand miles. He would have a strip of land one mile 
wide all along the western border cleared of woods so that the savages 
could not cross unseen. Franklin said the good dean forgot that there 
was a night in every twenty-four hours in America. Another theorist 
would supply each chief with a costume of savage finery made exclusively 
in England, and thus keep the Indians bounfl to England. Governor 
Bernard thought an American nobility the only agency strong enough to 
hold the allegiance of the colonists. 



38 THE MEM WHO MADE THE NATION 

Otis had scorned distinctions or grades of taxation ; but 
moderates like Franklin could distinguish between an 
internal tax, like the Stamp Act, and an external tax. 
'The one was collected directly and by compulsion, had 
a revenue for its sole object, and was clearly illegal ; but 
an external tax like an impost duty was collected indi- 
rectly, the purchase of dutiable goods was optional, and 
its object was to regulate and make commerce secure. 

Charles Townshend, who had become Chancellor 
of the Exchequer in 1766, also scorned these distinc- 
tions, but he took the Americans at their word and 
proposed an external tax, or impost duty, on a few 
luxuries — glass, paper, pasteboard, paints, and tea — 
supposed not to be produced in sufficient quantities in 
the colonies. The revenue expected to be derived from 
the act was not above ^70,000, and it was said that 
the London merchants offered to subscribe the entire 
amount rather than enter into another controversy with 
the Americans. But the remote object of gaining a 
revenue was now lost in the immediate question of 
power to hold the colonies. This was shown in an 
accompanying measure for a board of revenue com- 
missioners with a machinery entirely independent of 
the colonists, and likely to be more efficient in stop- 
ping smuggling than thrice the twenty regiments pro- 
posed by Grenville. The proceeds of the duty were 
also to be under the direct disposal of the king. 

So much regret was felt in England for the hasty 
repeal of the Stamp Act — a "fatal compliance," as the 
king called it — that the Townshend measures passed 
with little opposition. In America, barring some strong 
resolutions from Boston, there was no resistance. A 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



39 



general era of good feeling seemed at hand. The king 
ordered "most healing letters" written to the governors 
to be read before the Assemblies ; he was toasted and 
his birthdays celebrated as of old ; disorderly resist- 
ance was a thing of the past. But the colonists had 
learned two dangerous lessons — how effective coopera- 
tion could be made, and how easily they could depend 
on home manufactures. Agreements not to import 
goods from England were abandoned after the repeal 
of the Stamp Act, and trade should have resumed its 




former proportions. But in 1767 the exports to Amer- 
ica were p^ 1,500,000 below the mark of three years 
before. A vessel loaded with glass and nails returned 
from Boston for want of a market. A cargo of expen- 
sive mourning goods was also returned. " Save your 
money and save your country," was the motto displayed 
in certain newspapers. The economic philosophy of 
" Poor Richard," written years before, was bearing fruit. 
As a first object lesson, Franklin adopted an allegorical 
design for his note-paper to illustrate the dismemberment 
of the British empire. It is reproduced above. 



40 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Franklin now predicted that the colonists would be 
as willing to pay for one passion as another ; for their 
resentment as for their pride. He praised the discreet 
silence with which the New Yorkers received the 
Townshend acts and wished " the Boston people had 
been as quiet." Their resolution had produced " a most 
prodigious clamor." Yet to that clamor rather than to 
Franklin's policy of quiet development, America owes 
her ultimate freedom. Townshend's insidious plan of 
placing a duty on a few articles must have succeeded in 
bringing the colonies gradually under Parliamentary con- 
trol had it not been for the "clamor" of certain sentinels, 
the loudest of whom was Samuel Adams, the agitator 
of Boston. Franklin might have secured commercial 
freedom ; Adams secured political freedom as well. 

Although receiving much attention from his friends, 
Franklin lived quietly at the boarding house of Mrs. 
Stevenson, Craven street, near the Strand, with whom 
he resided during his combined fifteen years' stay in 
England. " I live here as frugally as possible not to 
be destitute of the comforts of life, making no dinners 
to anybody and contenting myself with a single dish 
when I dine alone." So he informed his wife when he 
suggested that she should forego " an expensive feasting 
wedding" for the approaching marriage of their daughter 
Sally, and " fit her out in clothes and furniture not ex- 
ceeding in the whole five hundred pounds of value." 
When the " Associators " disbanded after the Stamp Act 
was repealed,^ Franklin celebrated the supposed return 

1 Philadelphia citizens resolved in a public meeting to celebrate the 
king's coming birthday by dressing in new suits of English manufacture, 
and by giving their homespun to the poor. 



BENJAMhY FRANKLIN- 4 1 

to English manufactures by sending to his family some 
Pompadour satin, brocaded lutestring, gloves, reels for 
winding silk, and " a gimcrack corkscrew, which you 
must get some brother gimcrack to show you the use 
of." 

By nature Franklin belonged to the patrician class. 
He was intensely devoted to good living, delighted with 
good fellowship, fond of hobnobbing with the great, at- 
tracted by a bright mind in either sex, and carried a 
stock of wit and anecdote which made him a welcome 
addition to any circle. In general inclination as well as 
in his dress, the purely practical overshadowed the 
aesthetic. " I must confess that if I could find in any 
Italian travels a receipt for making Parmese cheese, it 
would give me more satisfaction than a transcript of any 
inscription from any old stone whatever." Years before 
this time, he had received degrees from both Oxford 
and Edinburgh, and the Copley medal for his scientific 
researches. These distinctions, no less than his natural 
qualities, won for him in England friends like Burke, 
Lord Shelburne, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord Howe, 
Dr. Priestley, and others. Pleasant glimpses of his 
daily life are afforded in his letters home; attending a 
venison feast "where I have drunk more than a phi- 
losopher ought " ; accompanying the queen's physician 
on a pleasure trip to France ; dining with prominent 
men and receiving "a great deal of flummery" from 
them ; being hugged and kissed after wine by a noble- 
man who protested that he had never met a man with 
whom he was so much in love. Making a tour of 
Ireland and Scotland, he was given a seat in the Irish 
Parliament by the unanimous vote of the members, and 



42 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

received " an abundance of civilities from the gentry of 
botli kingdoms." He was chosen a foreign member of 
the French Royal Academy, an honor conferred on 
only eight men in Europe. 

But despite these honors and pleasant associations, 
evil days were coming upon him. As time widened 
the breach between the colonies and the mother country, 
whatever moderate views Franklin might hold, it was 
impossible for him to escape suspicion of being too 
much in sympathy with the rebels. Efforts were made 
to bind him to the crown by hints of an office — some 
said the governorship of Pennsylvania — which kept 
him for some time dancing attendance on political 
leaders, but came to naught. His son was made gov- 
ernor of New Jersey on the supposition that " what he 
is ordered to do, the father cannot well oppose " ; but it 
resulted in Franklin adhering more closely to the rebels 
and his son being compelled to flee from his governor- 
ship during the Revolution. For twenty years he had 
been one of two deputy postmaster-generals for the 
colonies at a joint salary of ;^6oo. Covert threats were 
now made of removing him, but he refused to take any 
hints, being as he said "deficient in the Christian grace 
of resignation." 

The crisis came in the " Hutchinson letters." One 
day in a conversation, a friend in England had insisted 
that the laws of which the colonists complained were 
" projected, proposed to administration, solicited, and 
obtained, by some of the most respectable among the 
Americans themselves, as necessary measures for the 
welfare of that country." Franklin refused to believe 
any one of his countrymen guilty of such a thing. In 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 43 

proof, the friend submitted letters written between 1767 
and 1769 to a private gentleman in England, by Lieu- 
tenant-governor Hutchinson,^ Secretary Oliver, of Mas- 
sachusetts, and others. The writers insisted that the 
revenue acts could be maintained in America only by 
the aid of force ; suggested changes in the Massachu- 
setts charter which would tend to make that province 
less independent ; and strongly urged that some way be 
found to "take off the original incendiaries." 

Actuated, as he said, only by his duty as agent for 
Massachusetts, Franklin recjuested the letters, and, under 
a promise of secrecy, forwarded them to the speaker of 
the Assembly of that colony. But it was impossible to 
keep secret such evidences of the unfaithfulness, if not 
treachery, of high officials, and upon demand of the 
Assembly the letters were produced and printed. Reso- 
lutions were immediately forwarded to Franklin for 
presentation demanding the removal of the offenders. 
Franklin's agency was still unknown, but the affair led 
to a duel between William VVhately, to whose deceased 
brother the letters had been written, and Mr. Temple, 
through whose hands they had probably passed. To 
prevent a second encounter, Franklin confessed his 
agency in sending the letters to America, but persisted 
in refusing to tell how he obtained them. He further 
said that the addresses had been removed before he saw 
them. 

All the feeling engendered by Franklin's course in 

1 Thomas Hutchinson, a graduate of Harvard College, rose through 
many colonial offices to the governorship of Massachusetts. As a coura- 
geous and conscientious official, he vvfas in frequent conflict with the 
patriots, as described later. His "Diary and Letters" have been pub- 
lished by P. O. Hutchinson, and a " Life " by J. K. Hosmer. 



44 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION- 

defending the colonies now broke forth. Dr. Samuel 
Johnson pronounced him the master of mischief. His 
persistent silence concerning the letters, necessary to 
shield Mr. Temple, was construed as a confession of 
guilt. Whately, acting as executor for his dead brother, 
sued Franklin in chancery for obtaining the letters by 
illegal means. When the petition for the removal of 



^.. ..^^...^..^.4::- .-.-. .-:__. yy_..^ J 






^*»> ^/(-PT 



y^ ^^?fe^<^?a«^^^ ■'• 




u:^i7£/^J^^tz^yi^^ 



[111 llic Museum (if the tiritish I'ost Oltice, London.] 

the Massachusetts ofificials was heard at the Cockpit, 
the solicitor-general was allowed to turn aside from the 
main issues to abuse Franklin, who stood near by. He 
compared him to the bloody African in Dr. Young's 
tragedy, hailed him not by his well-known title as a 
man of letters, but as "a man of three letters" (Latin 
///;-, a thief); and branded him as one before whom 
men would hide their papers and lock up their escri- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 45 

toires. Two days later the postmaster-general " found 
it necessary to dismiss" Franklin from his office as 
deputy for the colonies. 

During the remaining fifteen months of his stay in 
England, closing up his business as agent and turning 
it over to his successor, Arthur Lee, Franklin felt him- 
self estranged from government. He had no further 
communication with the ministry, and avoided their 
levees. He was momentarily flattered by the apparent 
desire of Pitt, now Lord Chatham, for reconciliation, 
but disappointed when he saw how selfish the motives 
were. Most reluctantly he began to abandon hope of 
a reconciliation between the colonies and the mother 
country. He had already summed up the situation in 
the homely terseness of Poor Richard, " In matrimonial 
matches, it is said, when one party is willing, the match 
is half made, but when neither party is willing, there is 
no great danger of their coming together." 

Despairing of further usefulness, he bade farewell to 
his friends in England and set sail for Philadelphia, 
where he was met by news of the skirmish at Concord 
and Lexington. Political rebellion had grown into war. 
He was at once elected to the Revolutionary Continental 
Congress as a delegate from Pennsylvania. 

On this third visit to England he had spent ten years 
in the interests of his people, and the changes which 
time had wrought in his home and friends were pitiful. 
He was bound by many ties to his wife who, as a girl, 
had stood on her father's steps laughing at the runaway 
printer's apprentice as he walked up the street the morn- 
ing of his arrival in Philadelphia. He was betrothed to 
her when he went to England the first time, but an indif- 



46 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

ference grew between them, and she married another. 
After he returned, and the unworthy one deserted her, 
Frankhn married her. She had stood faithfully in the 
little stationer's shop for many years before a compe- 
tence, due largely to her frugality, enabled them to 
retire. When a mob threatened the house at the time 
of the supposed treachery of Franklin, she sent for 
arms, and defended the hearthstone in the absence of 
the master, a modern Penelope faithful to her Ulysses. 
But when the master returned, she was not there to 
greet him. The winter's snow had lain on her grave 
in Christ churchyard. Sally, grown to womanhood and 
married to Mr. Bache, had taken her mother's place in 
the household. Many of Franklin's friends had passed 
away, and the Revolution was making sad divisions 
among others. He felt himself an old man now in 
his seventieth year, but he was destined to give fifteen 
years more to the people whose interests he had guarded 
so well when he had been their spokesman at the court 
of the king. 

Oct. 5th (1775) . . . This afternoon arrived (the ship 
Pennsylvania Packet) Captain Osborne, from London, in which 
came passenger. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, to the satisfaction of 
his friends and the lovers of liberty. — Diary of Christopher 
Marshall, of Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER II 

SAMUEL ADAMS, THE MAN OF THE TOWN MEETING 

At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of 
the Town of Boston duly Qualified and lawfully warned in 
Publick Town Meeting Assembled at Faneuil Hall on Monday 
the twelfth day of March Anno Dom. 1753. 

It was Voted, That W. John Tudor, M'' John Ruddock, M' 
Samuel Adams, Foster Hutchinson Esqf, MI' Harrison Gray, 
Ml' Oxenbridge Thacher, and M!' William Cooper, or the 
Major part of them, be and they hereby are appointed a 
Committee to Visit the Publick Schools in the Town the 
Year ensuing at such times as they shall think proper, to See 
what Number of Children are in each School, to Enquire into 
their behavior and Attendance, and the Government and Regu- 
lation they are under, and they are desired to make Report 
hereon at the General Town Meeting in March next. — From 
the Boston Town Records, 1753. 

The town meeting is the primordial germ of Saxon 
organization. Reduced almost to a state of nature in 
the wilderness of the new world, the first comers 
reverted to early types and turned instinctively to this 
form of self-government. Their charters gave to them 
home rule, together with the title to certain unoccupied 
lands. Divided and redivided into towns as the growth 
of population demanded, the people of New England 
multiplied the number of town meetings and so uncon- 
sciously created a cooperative agency which placed that 

47 



u-.;;r.jt^ 



48 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

region foremost in resisting Parliamentary coercion and 
control. 

Assembling annually in March and at such other times 
as necessity might demand, a moderator (chairman) was 
chosen either by " a written Vote " or by " a handy 
Vote," the town clerk opened his minute book, and the 
varied business before the meeting was begun. ^ Even 
in time of peace, urgent matters were not wanting. 
They embraced such questions as the employment of a 
school usher or master and determining the amount of 
his salary ; paying the sexton for ringing the church 
bell at eleven and nine o'clock each working day and at 
an alarm of fire ; letting the town land ; cleaning the 
town wells ; arranging taxes and appointing assessors ; 
receiving and considering petitions ; determining " some 
Method to prevent negroes keeping Hogs," and devis- 
ing " some method to prevent the firing of Chimneys." 
As the villages within the towns grew into cities and 
the petty details of administration increased, the town 
meeting began gradually to pave the way for modern 
representative government by entrusting certain tasks to 
elected officers. In addition to the selectmen, there 
were chosen overseers of the poor, a county register and 
treasurer, wardens, fire-wards, town treasurer, " clercks 
of the markets," constables, collectors of taxes, sur- 
veyors of boards, fence viewers, sealers of leather, 
informers of deer, cullers of staves, hog-reeves, haywards, 
scavengers, surveyors of wheat, assay masters, keepers 
of the granary, and surveyors of highways. 

^ The Town Records of Boston have lieen fully reprinted and are to be 
found in any general library. Those for many other towns have been 
reprinted in part. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 49 

Among these petty officials of Boston as well as on 
the rolls of more important places, one finds frequently 
the name of the elder Samuel Adams. He was always 
an anti-government man, noted for his quarrels with the 
royal governor, and for his leadership among the com- 
mon people. Although a maltster by occupation, his 
political efforts placed him at the head of the caulkers' 
club, organized among the shipyard and seafaring 
people, from which the word "caucus" is said to be 
derived. His obituary notice in the Boston Gazette of 
March, 1748, marks him as " one who well understood 
and rightly pursued the civil and religious interests of the 
people; a true New England Man; an honest Patriot." 
As such he had been rejected by the royal governor of 
Massachusetts when the Assembly by a large vote had 
chosen him to the governor's council. 

If anything further than this example were needed to 
make the younger Samuel Adams a non-government 
man, it came after his father's death when the sheriff 
seized upon the remnant of the once large brewing 
plant to satisfy claimants on a " land " bank of which 
his father had been director. The issuance by the 
bank of notes as paper money had been stopped by the 
king because they depreciated in value and disturbed 
the colonial finances. The action had been thought 
unjust by many at the time ; and now when the holders 
of the old claims turned to the law, Samuel Adams 
initiated his later Revolutionary tactics by appearing at 
the sale and browbeating the sheriff and intending pur- 
chasers. Thus he saved his property, and a later act of 
Assembly outlawed the bank claims. However, royal 
government in the colonies had made a mortal enemy. 



■ — ^ -^ 



50 THE MEN' WHO MADE THE NAT/ON" 

Samuel Adams first appears in the records of the 
Boston town meetings in 1753, as shown in the extract 
at the head of this chapter. In the humble offices of 
school examiner and of scavenger, ^ he began that 
career which eventually earned for him the title of " the 
man of the town meeting." Perhaps so early as this 
he realized what a powerful political engine the town 
meeting could be made. It was the voice of popular 
will. It had been heard when Grenville's policy 
threatened the colonies with perpetual taxation, and it 
had rejoiced when the Stamp Act was repealed. Now 
when it was found that taxation was to be renewed 
quietly in the Townshend Acts, Samuel Adams devoted 
his time to keeping the public aroused and the feeling 
of resistance alive through the medium of the town 
meeting. 

The result was disastrous to him financially. While 
other men were in the counting room or in the fac- 
tory, this indifferent maltster was at the shipyards or at 
the ropcwalks talking politics. His father, despairing 
of the hope of a clergyman's career for Samuel, 
had given him ^1000 to embark in business just 
after he was graduated from Harvard. The business 
soon failed. After his father's death, the son continued 
the brewing business near Bull Wharf at the lower end 
of Summer street ; but the property faded away until 
all was lost save the adjacent residence on Purchase 
street. A companion declared that " his time is all 
employed in public service." The people were grateful. 
They repaired his dwelling, built him a new barn, and at 

^ The duties of scavenger were much like those of a health oflicer of 
the present day. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 5 I 

one time fitted him with an entire new wardrobe from 
wig to shoes and silver shoe buckles, and placed in his 
pocket fifteen or twenty Johannes.^ 

For many years he was dependent upon his p^ioo 
salary as the clerk of the Massachusetts Assembly. 
Yet Governor Hutchinson testified that " such is the 
obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man that 
he never would be conciliated by any office or gift 
whatever." The governor also said that "his chief 
dependency is the town meeting in Boston, where he 
originates the measures which are followed by the rest 
of the towns." Because of his activity in drawing up 
resolutions and instructions, in serving on protesting 
committees, and in presiding over and addressing town 
meetings, the governor dubbed him " the chief incen- 
diary of the province," " the Master of the Puppets," 
and the " all in all." 

The first Monday in November, 1772, Samuel Adams 
arose in a town meeting to move the appointment of a 
committee to correspond with the committees of other 
towns so that the danger of one might become the con- 
cern of all. The plan dated back in England to the 
Stuart troubles. The suggestion for such committees 
had come spontaneously from various parts of the colo- 
nies.'-^ It was indicative of the common demand for a 

1 Wells's " Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams," Vol. II., 
pp. 207-212. 

- The arguments of the several claimants to the honor of originating 
the committees of correspondence are set forth in Wells's " Samuel Adams,"' 
Vol. I., pp. 496-497; in Wirt's "Patrick Henry," p. 105; in Tucker's 
"Jefferson," Vol. I., pp. 52-55; in Randall's "Jefferson," Vol. I., pp. 78- 
81, and in the North American Review for March, 1818. A good claim 
is also made for the New York Assembly by Dawson in his " Sons of 
Liberty." 



52 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

general agency. The scheme was destined to become a 
powerful part of the Revolutionary machinery, although 
small at first. Daniel Leonard denounced the idea as 
"the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever 
issued from the Q.gg of sedition. I saw," said he, "the 
small seed when it was planted ; it was a grain of mus- 
tard. I have watched the plant until it has become a 
great tree." John Adams afterward asked, ^ " Did not 
every colony, nay, every county, city, hundred, and town, 
upon the whole continent, adopt the measure, I had 
almost said, as if it had been a revelation from above, 
as the happiest means of cementing the union and acting 
in concert } " There was soon a network of communi- 
cation over what before had been isolated colonies. 

When the Townshend measures were passed, Samuel 
Adams remembered the effect of the agreement not to 
import goods from England in 1765, It had largely 
caused the repeal of the Stamp Act. But it was diffi- 
cult to revive and to keep alive such "associations." 
Importers who signed an agreement not to bring over 
any more goods from England virtually committed busi- 
ness suicide. The reward of a clear conscience was 
likely to prove a poor return to most men for the ruin 
of their fortunes and the impending poverty of their 
children. When the merchants of Philadelphia, for 
instance, refused to bid on making uniforms for the 
royal troops, a merchant of New York broke the agree- 
ment and made a handsome profit from the contract. 
The Boston traders were better kept in line through the 
watchfulness of Samuel Adams and his fellows. When 

^ " Works of John Adams," Vol. IV., p. 34. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 



53 



persuasion failed, harsher measures were resorted to. In- 
timidating handbills were circulated, begging all patriots 
not to patronize 
the offending firm, 
or a post bearing a 
pointing hand was 
erected in front of 
the obstinate mer- 
chant's door. 

In many of the 
newspapers of New 
England, there ap- 
peared poetry in- 
tended to encour- 
age the people in 
economizing and in 
using home manu- 
factures. 

"Ladies, tlirow aside your topknots of pride, 
Wear none but your own country's linen ; 
Of economy boast, let your pride be the most. 
To show clothes of your own make and spinning. 
As one all agree that youll not married be 
To such as will wear London factory ; 
But at once refuse, tell 'em such you will choose 
As encourage our own manufactory." ^ 

Newspapers also made favorable mention of such in- 
stances as a family in Rhode Island which knitted 387 
pairs of stockings in eighteen months. A class was 
graduated from Harvard College in clothing made in 

^ From the Boston Post. For other specimens of Revolutionary com- 
position see Tyler's " Literary History of the American Revolution," and 
Moore's "Songs and Ballads of the Revolution." 





f^ILL I A M JACKS N, 

nn I M PORTE R,TX the 
BRAZEN HEAD, 

North Sid: of the TOWN-HOUSE,' 
and Of^pYitc the Tcini-Pnmp, in 
Coni-hill, B S T M. 

It is dofircd th.it the Sons and ' 
D.uciiTERs oi' L/BERTr, 

would not bu}" any one thing of 
Jiim, for in fo doing tlicy \\'\\\ bring 
Difgr.KV u\\m rbaifch^a, and their 
Po(icyii}\ for cva- and czci\ AAIEN 



54 THE MEN U'HO MADE THE NATION 

America and hence known as " homespun." Some 
agreements included the kilHng of sheep sparingly, the 
discouraging of horse-racing and all kinds of gaming, 
cock-fighting, "exhibition of shews," etc. No mourn- 
ing was to be allowed beyond black crape or a ribbon on 
the arm or a black ribbon or necklace for women. 
No more gloves nor " scarves " were to be given at 
funerals. 

Whether these associations or the local political clubs 
formed the basis of certain Revolutionary organizations 
which now sprang up is uncertain. Some writers de- 
rive the term " Sons of Liberty " from a speech in 
Parliament by Col. Isaac Barre. The term had long 
been used to denote a man opposed to any extension of 
the power of royal government. " Sons of Liberty " 
or " Liberty Boys " had been organized in New York 
City among the lawyers during a contest with a royal 
governor as early as 1744. The name had been used to 
denote the colonists who fell in the French-Indian 
wars. During the Stamp Act excitement there ap- 
peared "an excellent new song for the sons of lib- 
erty in New York ! " One of the thirteen stanzas 
runs : 

" With the Beasts of the Woods, We will ramble for Food 
And lodge in wild Desarts and Caves 
And live Poor as Job, on the Skirts of the Globe, 
Before we'll submit to be slaves." 

John Dickinson was the reputed author of another 
" liberty song " beginning : 

"Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all 
And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty's call."' 



SAMUEL ADAMS 



55 



Branches of the Sons of Liberty were in operation 
from New Hampshire to South CaroUna, but httle 
is known of them. They were the unknown agents 
whenever protest had to be supplemented by force. 
" Liberty Boys " and " Mohawks " were closely allied 
whether stamps or tea had to be destroyed. Their 
membership was composed of men of a lower social 
class than the final leaders of the Revolution. Barrina: 
Samuel Chase of Maryland, scarcely one of them made 
a place for himself. Samuel Adams seems to have been 
in close touch with the organization in Boston and joined 
in the invitation to John Adams to attend their meet- 
ings. The latter drew up several papers for them and 
in his Diary has left a description of a visit to their 
place of meeting in Hanover square. 

" It is a counting-room in Chase and Speakman's distillery ; 
a very small room it is. John Avery, distiller or merchant, of 
a liberal education, John Smith, the brazier, Thomas Crafts, 
the painter, Edes, the printer, Stephen Cleverly, the brazier, 
Chase, the distiller, Joseph Field, master of a vessel, Henry 
Bass, George Trott, jeweller, were present. I was invited by 
Crafts and Trott to go and spend an evening with them and 
some others. Avery was mentioned to me as one. I went, 
and was very civilly and respectfully treated by all present. 
We had punch, wines, pipes and tobacco, biscuit and cheese, 
&c. I heard nothing but such conversation as passes at all 
clubs, among gentlemen, about the times. No plots, no 
machinations." ^ 

The Sons of Liberty in different communities erected 
"liberty poles." At Providence, Rhode Island, they re- 
solved : " We do therefore, in the name and behalf of all 

i " Works of John Adams," Vol. II., p. 178. 



56 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

true Sons of Liberty in America, Great Britain, Ireland, 
Corsica, or wheresoever they arc dispersed throughout 
the M'orld, dedicate and solemnly devote this tree to be 
a Tree of Liberty." Their pole in the square at New 
York was cut down four times by the king's troops ; but 
they purchased a plot of ground and then triumphantly 
erected a fifth. When a Maryland patriot's house was 
burned, the Sons of Liberty rebuilt it. They mu.st have 
exercised no small power in the local elections. 

Daughters of Liberty also came into existence. They 
usually assembled to knit or sew during the afternoons, 
and to serve tea to the Sons of Liberty who came in the 
evening. Then all "blended their voices" in liberty 
songs. ^ 

In one of the contests of the New York Sons of Lib- 
erty with the 14th regiment over the liberty pole, a 
citizen was killed and four others, besides a sailor, 
severely wounded. If such a contest arose in a city 
which was the military headquarters of America and 
whose people were accustomed to the petty irritation of 
troops in their midst, what might be expected in Boston 
when two and a half regiments of regulars landed at the 
Long Wharf and marched up to the Common. They 
were the 14th, 29th, and part of the 59th regiments from 

1 One of the best-known "liberty songs," supposed to have been 
written l)y Thomas I'aine, began : 

" In a chariot of light from the regions of clay 
The Goddess of Liberty came; 
Ten thousand celestials directed the way, 

And hither conducted the dame. 
A fair budding branch from the gardens above, 

Where millions with millions agree, 
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, 
And the plant she named Liberty Tree." 



SAMUEL ADAMS 57 

Halifax, and were increased later by two regiments from 
Ireland. When the Bostonians first heard of the com- 
ing of these troops, they threatened to resist and placed 
a tar or turpentine barrel on Beacon Hill to summon 
the country people to their aid when the troops should 
arrive. But calmer counsels prevailed. America had 
resisted the imposition of a tax, the proceeds of which 
might have been used for imposing a standing army 
on them. Regardless of this fact, the army was to be 
imposed and Grenville's policy pursued, although by 
another administration. 

Many conservative people even in America felt that 
the Bostonians had brought these troops on themselves 
by the riot which followed the seizure of the sloop 
Liberty belonging to the popular young John Hancock. 
As was frequently done, the captain had made a false 
entry and so smuggled in some Madeira wine. Upon 
news of the seizure, the mob beat the customs officials, 
attacked their houses, and dragged one of their boats 
through the streets and then burned it. The commis- 
sioners of customs fled for their lives to the castle in 
the harbor. Another customs officer was tarred and 
feathered at a later time. Riots accompanied the cele- 
bration of the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp 
Act. It seemed high time to bring the Boston people 
to their senses. 

When the troops arrived, the obstinate town would 
provide them with no quarters. The selectmen insisted 
that they should be quartered in the castle three miles 
down the harbor. A part of the troops were therefore 
placed in tents on the Common, and a part forced 
entrance to the State House and found lodgings there. 



58 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Later, Governor Gage arrived from New York and with 
difficulty rented quarters, but at the expense of the crown. 
The commissary met the same difficulty in purchas- 
ing provisions from the stubborn merchants. Children 
scoffed at the soldiers on the streets, calling them " lob- 
sters " and "bloody-backs." The officers, traditionally 
accustomed to a pleasant reception in colonial society, 
found themselves social pariahs in Boston. 

The Bostonians looked upon the soldiers as hirelings 
sent for their subjugation; as "fit instruments to serve 
the wrath of ministerial vengeance." Complaint was 
made that the quiet of the Lord's day was broken by 
the marching of the troops and that the soldiers looted 
private dwellings.^ On the other hand, the soldiers 
complained that their barracks had become a refuge for 
good citizens mistreated at the hands of the mobs. The 
officers were annoyed by being stopped and questioned 
by the town night-watch if they chanced to be out after 
midnight. They regarded with suspicion the vote of the 
town meeting that every "listed soldier" in the town 
" shall always be provided with a well-fixed firelock 
musket, accoutrements and ammunition," although the 
fear of a French invasion was given as the excuse. 
Both sides were ripe for a conflict. 

Three of the five regiments had been sent away before 
1770, but encounters between the remaining soldiers and 
individual citizens grew more frequent during the earlier 
part of that year. One day a few soldiers visited one 
of the ropewalks, and some rough words led to a fight 

1 In an " Essay on Manners," puhlished in 1787, Noah Webster added 
as a grievanee that the language used l>y the regular troops in Boston 
tended to corrupt the purity of the English spoken in that city. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 59 

with sticks and cutlasses between them and the rope- 
makers. Three nights later, March 5, 1770, the streets 
were alive with excited men and boys expecting a 
renewal of the contest. For some reason, the alarm 
bell was rung and the crowd increased. Numbers sur- 
rounded the guardhouse in King street opposite the 
State House. Farther up the street a boy pointed out 
a sentry in front of the Custom House as the one who 
had knocked him down. As the angry crowd sur- 
rounded the startled soldier, throwing snowballs and 
bits of ice at him, he ran up the steps of the Custom 
House and called for help. Captain Preston and a 
squad ran over from the guardhouse with fixed bayo- 
nets to clear the street. Clubs and bayonets began to 
be used freely, and, with or without orders, a volley was 
fired. Crispus Attucks, a mulatto slave or half-breed 
Indian, James Caldwell, a sailor, Samuel Gray, and 
Samuel Maverick lay dead in the street. Patrick Carr 
had received wounds of which he died later. Six others, 
mostly young men, were wounded. Attucks and Cald- 
well were strangers in Boston and were given a public 
funeral from Faneuil Hall. The others were buried 
from the homes of relatives. It was estimated that 
twenty thousand people attended. 

After the firing, the cooler heads with great difficulty 
persuaded the enraged people to disperse instead of at 
once destroying the offending soldiers. By three o'clock 
in the morning, Captain Preston and his squad were in 
the town jail, the night-watches about the streets had 
been doubled, and the excitement gradually subsided. 
The next day a town meeting in the Old South Meeting 
House sent two committees consecutively to Lieutenant- 



6o THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

governor Hutchinson, demanding the removal of the 
troops. When that official consented to send away the 
regiment to which the prisoners belonged, the crowd in 
the street raised the cry which Adams had taught them, 
" Both regiments or none," and a fortnight later, the last 
boatload of what Hutchinson aptly called " Sam Adams's 
regiments" ^ was rowed away to the castle in the harbor, 
and the colonists had scored another victory. 

The law-abiding sense of the people soon returned. 
Seven months were allowed for the cooling of passions 
before the prisoners came to trial. Captain Preston 
issued a card of thanks from the jail appreciative of 
his treatment. The prisoners had good counsel,"-^ and all 
were discharged except two, who were branded in the 
hand. The verdict was received with general applause, 
above which could be heard the cry of Samuel Adams, 
who demanded blood for blood. The entire incident 
was small, similar affrays occurred in other places, but 
blood had flowed in Boston because of British regulars 
who would not have been there exxept for the desire of 
government to coerce the colonists into subserviency. 
This was the feeling which prompted the Bostonians to 
raise a monument to the victims of what they have 
always called the " Boston Massacre." 

Stories of the encounter were copied from the Boston 
newspapers and circulated through the reading colonial 
world, thus giving that city a prominence and inviting 
the sympathy which was presently to rally the continent 
to her relief. The slaughter of men in the streets of 

1 See Ilosmer's "Samuel Adams," p. 169. Wells, Vol. 1., p. 326. 

2 John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Adams said he felt evidences of 
the unpopularity of his action for years afterward, and Quincy's father 
violently remonstrated against his son undertaking the case. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 6 1 

a city had an ugly appearance which members of the 
opposition failed not to use when the news reached 
Parliament. They had already said to the ministry, " If 
you mean to govern the country by military force you 
have not sent enough ; if you intend to continue civil 
government, you have sent too many." Now they 
found the ministry "shy and tender" and inclined to 
get rid of the troublesome topic. Lord North ^ sat silent 
under the criticisms heaped upon him and quickly moved 
an adjournment. No doubt he felt the advantage likely 
to accrue from this unfortunate affair to the gigantic 
cabal which Samuel Adams was forming all through 
the colonies by his Revolutionary machinery and in Bos- 
ton by the magnetism of his personality. 

Perhaps the most fortunate convert which he gained 
for the colonial cause was his second cousin, a young 
lawyer, named John Adams, who had removed from 
Braintree to Boston. He proved the truth of the saying 
that those men who examine well and choose deliber- 
ately the side which they will take make the most 
lasting patriots.^ The conservatism of the younger man 
was at times a severe trial to Samuel Adams, but the 
two soon became known as the par fratnini, and John 
Adams confesses that they employed even the Sabbath 
in "working the political machine." The royal gov- 
ernor of their colo'ny assured the British government that 
the feeling in Boston would speedily subside " if it were 
not for two or three Adamses. I don't know how to 

1 George Grenville was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1763 to 1765. 
Charles Townshend occupied the office during a portion of 1767. He was 
followed by Lord North, who became also Prime Minister in 1770. His 
administration lasted until 17S3. 

■^ " Works of John Adams," Vol. TI., pp. 29S-302. 



62 THE MEM WHO MADE THE NATION 

account for the obstinacy of one [probably John] who 
seemed to me when he began Hfe to promise well. The 
other [presumably Samuel] never appeared different 
from what he does at present and, I fear, never will." ^ 
Far more important to the outside world was the 
winning of Col. John Hancock. Two John Hancocks 
had been pastors at Lexington, Massachusetts, but the 
third of that name imbibed a commercial taste in the 
adopted home of his wealthy uncle in Boston. As a 
graduate of Harvard, a visitor at the coronation of 
George HI., the heir of his uncle's fortune of ^75,000 
and the great importing business, young Hancock was 
the most conspicuous figure in prc-Revolutionary Boston. 
His aunt, known as Madame Hancock, presided over his 
magnificent home until his marriage to Dorothy Quincy. 
His ships sailed on many seas, bringing into Boston 
"oyles, cheese, Russia duck, lemons, etc. "^ At twenty- 
eight he was chosen selectman by a town meeting. 
When the Stamp Act was repealed, his house was 
brilliantly illuminated, and he broached a pipe of wine 
for the crowd. When the Sons of Liberty indulged 
in a dinner at Dorchester and marched back to town 
in the evening, the wealthy Hancock rode ahead in a 
chariot. As colonel of the Boston Cadets, and the 
donor of windows and bells to churches, and a fire- 
engine to the city, his influence was extensive, although 
a certain haughtiness at times injured his popularity. 
He risked his property and reputation when he began to 
fall in with the plans of Samuel Adams and the patriot 

1 Wells's " Life of Samuel Adams," Vol. I., p. 379. 

2 Brown's " Life of John Hancock," p. 77. " Works of John Adams," 
Vol. IL, p. 300. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 6^ 

party. Government men ridiculed him as "Johnny 
Dupe," insinuated that he was led about by Adams, and 
coined the saying, " Adams does the writing, and Han- 
cock pays the postage." Soon the two were denounced 




.. -•' f"r ;t/ V ■ '-lA' ' *- ■ 'i^v ■ ' ' ,■ 







The Hon. Ihomas Gagc^ Eiq: 

Coitmor, Md Conmaodcr in Cliicf i.i and mct iiis Majcftj-'. Prwir.ct of i!airKhufctt<-Bir, a 
Viv; AJra'ra! ■ i' ihr Elffic 

A PROCLAMATION. 

V V .fcc*T^«*i*«^»K-W.w ihTarr. ».,^«it -v,!'-.- <S Hi«^^. -M><^'-^«''-* Ai**^-'" 



as prinii conscripti, and were eventually singled out by 
Gage in his proclamation as exempt from pardon. ^ 

Samuel Adams also influenced two other young men 
of Boston : Dr. Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker 

1 When General Gage issuer! a proclamation, the head of which is shown 
in the accompanying cut, proclaiming pardon to all except Adams and Han- 
cock, Jonathan Trumbull wrote a burlesque upon it which appeared in the 
Connecticut Courant in 1 775. The following is an extract : 

"Those who in peace will henceforth live 
I and Ilis Majesty forgive; 
All but that arch-rogue and first grand cock, 
Your Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
Whose crimes are grown to that degree 
I must hang theni' — -or they'll hang me." 



64 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Hill, when only thirty-three years of age, and Josiah 
Quincy, the brilliant lawyer, whose services were lost 
to the cause by his untimely death at the age of 
thirty. Nearer the age of Adams were his confreres, 
Thomas Gushing, who could obtain valuable information 
for the patriots, Robert Treat Paine, a preacher-lawyer, 
and James Bovvdoin, the scientific friend of Franklin, 
whose wealth almost equalled that of Hancock. 

In the bungling methods which marked the adminis- 
tration of the colonies. Lord Hillsborough^ had written 
to the governor of Virginia assuring him that the Par- 
liament of 1770 would certainly repeal the obnoxious 
Townshend measures. When the session began, there 
was not a petition from the sullen colonists and but 
one from the British merchants. However, Lord 
North, committed to action by the Hillsborough letter, 
moved the repeal of all the Townshend taxes save that 
on tea. The importation of tea in the colonies had fallen 
between 1768 and 1769 from ^132,000 to ^44,000. 
The Americans drank tea made of dried mullein, catnip, 
balm, sage, and raspberry leaves. But it was necessary 
to retain one article of the Townshend Act for the 
preamble, which asserted the right of " defraying the 
expenses of defending, protecting, and securing " the col- 
onies. The opposition showed that the income from the 
tax on tea would amount to less than j[^'jooo per annum 
and that it was simply a device for persisting in the 
policy of taxing America. 

The action was most unfortunate. It was a conces- 
sion to the colonies, but not a complete concession. It 
showed the weakness of administration without remov- 

1 He was secretary of state for the colonies. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 65 

ing wholly the cause of complaint. It was denounced 
in Parliament as " doing and undoing, menacing and 
submitting, straining and relaxing." Franklin simply 
observed that it was bad surgery to leave splinters in a 
wound which must prevent its healing or in time cause it 
to open afresh. The colonists rebuked this "preamble," 
or " preambulatory " tax as they called it, by banishing 
England's tea more rigidly than ever. They compared 
the tea to a plague and said if a ship should bring in 
that dreadful malady nobody would doubt what was to 
be done ; and that the present case was much worse. 
Newspapers gave up their columns to appeals to the 
people not to use tea imported by the East India Com- 
pany. Poetry and acrostics were added to keep the 
public mind aroused. 

'•To save T heir Country doom'd by Fate 
E xclud E the Drink of baneful T — , 
A nd bear A Part in Deeds so great." 

The East India Tea Company, perhaps the greatest 
of the many monopolies which controlled England's 
policy at this time, soon felt the result of this refusal to 
use their product. Their complaints about the decrease 
of the consumption of tea in America arose to a clamor. 
In 1773, the company had seventeen million pounds of 
tea moulding in its warehouses. Its stock fell to 120 
per cent, and it could not pay the ^^400,000 due to the 
government annually for the privileges it enjoyed. In- 
stead the government had to advance it four times that 
sum. The customs receipts had fallen in 1772 to £,Zo 
after paying the cost of collection and the expenses of 
coast guards. Something must be done. Lord North 

F 



66 THE MEN WHO MADE THE iVATIOiV 

yielded to the company's clamor for a license to appoint 
consignees in the colonies to whom tea could be shipped 
for sale. This foolish step immediately alarmed the 
American merchants lest the great monopoly should 
get a foothold in America. Tea was to be forced upon 
the colonists, whether they ordered it or not. 

Lord North tried to remove the sting from the meas- 
ure by providing a drawback or rebate of twelvepence a 
pound to be paid to the company as the tea left England 
en route for America. Yet, to keep up the form of taxa- 
tion, it was to pay threepence as it entered America. 
The company foresaw the result and begged that the 
threepence be collected as the tea left England. But 
that would be giving up the tax. North was persistent 
for American collection, claiming that the colonists 
because of the drawback could buy tea cheaper than 
the people of England could and that they would yield 
to such mercenary inducements. 

When the news of this new action of Parliament 
reached Boston, Samuel Adams voiced the sentiments 
of America in the phrase, " We are not contesting for 
pence but for principles." Everywhere quiet prepara- 
tions went on to prevent the landing of the tea. Several 
numbers of an extra paper called the Alarm circu- 
lated in Massachusetts. The men who had consented 
to act as consignees for receiving the tea were compelled 
to swear not to execute their ofifices, as the stamp agents 
had been eight years before. In riotous Boston, after 
their houses had been wrecked, they fled for protection 
to the castle in the harbor. The " Committee on tarring 
and feathering" in quiet Philadelphia sent notice to the 
Delaware river pilots warning them not to bring the 



SAMUEL ADAMS 6/ 

Polly, a tea ship, up the river. To the captain of the 
vessel they wrote : '' What think you Captain of a Halter 
around your Neck . . . ten gallons of Hquid tar decanted 
on your Pate . . . with the Feathers of a dozen wild 
Geese laid on that to enliven your Appearance ? " 

November 28, 1773, Captain Hall, of the ship Dart- 
vioiith from England, reached the Long Wharf in Boston 
and was confronted by the Sons of Liberty, who de- 
manded to know whether he carried tea. Upon his 
confession, they took the vessel with the 114 chests of 
tea in the hold around to Griffin's wharf, where it could 
be watched more easily. Express riders were sent to 
New York and Philadelphia to notify them of the spir- 
ited resistance of Boston, and other riders were con- 
stantly in readiness to alarm the country. Soon the 
Eleanor under Captain Bruce and the Beaver under 
Captain Coffin arrived with the same amount of tea and 
were similarly treated. Bodies of watchmen selected by 
the town meeting patrolled the wharf day and night. 
If force was attempted to land the tea, the bells were to 
be tolled by day or rung by night. It was said to 
be impossible "to buy a pair of p — Is in town, as they 
are all bought up." ^ In vain the owner of the vessels 
prayed the governor for permission to return the tea to 
England without having them cleared entirely. It was 
a contest between the government and the rising rebel- 
lion, and the issue might as well come now as later. 

On the evening of the nineteenth day, just as the 
candles were lighted, in a great town meeting which had 
been in session almost continuously since the Dartuioiith 

1 [Pistols]. Hart's "American History tokl by Contemporaries," Vol. 
11., p. 431- 



68 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

came in, Mr. Rotch reported another failure to get a 
pass for his vessels. Samuel Adams then arose and 
said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the 
country." It may or may not have been a signal, but 
immediately the cry of the "Mohawks"^ was heard 
outside. Some one in the gallery cried, " Three cheers 
for Griffin's wharf," and the meeting dissolved. Many 
followed the Mohawks, who had assembled on Fort Hill, 
down to the wharf, and even assisted them in passing 
up the 342 chests of tea from the holds of the three ves- 
sels and tossing the contents into the water. Before 
nine o'clock, property to the value of ^18,000 had been 
destroyed, and Boston as a city had committed an overt 
act of violence. Precedent would easily be found for 
punishing a city because of the acts of its inhabitants. 

Paul Revere^ was sent to carry the news of Boston's 
spirited action to the other cities. When tea arrived in 
New York, the city was placarded by the Mohawks, and 
the tea ships sent to Halifax. From Philadelphia and 
from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the imported tea was 
returned to England. The example of Boston seemed 
contagious. At Annapolis and at Burlington, New Jer- 
sey, tea was burned. The twenty days being allowed to 
expire, the tea at Charleston, South Carolina, was seized 
by the customs officers and stored in a mouldy ware- 
house. A tea ship was cast away on Cape Cod, and the 
tea destroyed by the Sons of Liberty. A man who 
managed to save a hundred pounds of it was caught at 

1 The word " Mohawk " was used to denote a rough, disorderly ele- 
ment, both in England and America. See No. 335 of Addison's " Sir 
Roger de Coverley." 

- Paul Revere, a Boston engraver and goldsmith, acted as an e.\press 
rider upon various occasions. See his Life by Goss. 



SAMUEL ADAMS 69 

Lyme and roughly treated. In February following the 
December "party," twenty-eight chests were thrown 
overboard in Boston from the Fortune. In April tea 
was destroyed in New York. Three hundred pounds 
were burned in the market-place at Providence, Rhode 
Island, according to the notice of the town crier, and 
in the presence of a vast multitude. At the same time, 
a " spirited Son of Liberty went along the streets with 
his brush and lampblack and obliterated or unpainted 
the word 'tea' on the shop signs." It was estimated 
that the total value of the tea destroyed in America 
reached ^^2 5,000, and that returned would have brought 
^300,000 to the needy East India Company.^ 

Early in March, the king laid before Parliament 109 
papers giving accounts of the riot in Boston harbor and 
elsewhere, as well as the countenance given to such dis- 
order by the various town meetings. The spirit of 
rebellion seemed to pervade the continent, but Boston 
was the leader. Some pronounced the city a " nest of 
locusts," and others insisted that it should be "pulled 
about the ears " of its inhabitants. Even Franklin, the 
Massachusetts agent, regretted the action of Boston and 
sent over word that " Pitt delivered his sentiments in the 
House against the Americans, and blamed us for destroy- 
ing the tea." The right of property is dear to the English- 

1 Because she tried to force the tea on the colonies, England was de- 
clared to be the aggressor. As a local wag put it in the Boston Gazette : 

"Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts in anger 
Spills the tea on John Bull — John falls on to bang her; 
Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid, 
And gives master John a severe bastinade ! 
Now, good men of law, pray who is in fault, — 
The one who begins, or resists, the assault? " 



70 THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATION 

man, and only extreme provocation can justify its destruc- 
tion. " Let it go forth to the world that Great Britain will 
protect her subjects and their property" was the moving 
thought. If property could no longer be safe in Boston 
harbor, property should no longer be carried there. 

In eighteen days a bill had passed the Parliament 
without a division in either house and by a " prodigious 
majority," to prevent, after the first day of June follow- 
ing, all vessels entering the harbor of Boston except 
those carrying fuel or victuals. Even these could be 
brought only in coasting vessels and must then be entered 
at Salem or Marblehead and come to Boston under a 
pass with an officer on board. The capital of the prov- 
ince was removed to Salem. The king was given power 
to annul the act when the Bostonians should pay for the 
tea and all other property destroyed in the different riots 
and give promise that property would be safe in their 
harbor hereafter. 

In determining the kind of punishment for Boston, 
Lord North was taking advantage of the keen commer- 
cial rivalry among the colonial ports. He thought the 
prospect of gaining Boston's trade would appeal to the 
other seaboard cities, and thus the threatened colonial 
union would be broken. He assured Parliament that 
" the rest of the colonies will not take fire at the proper 
punishment inflicted on those who have disobeyed your 
authority." However, some agreed with Lord Chester- 
field, " I never saw a forward child mended by whipping ; 
and I would not have the mother country become a step- 
mother." But sentiment was plainly in favor of further 
coercion. Soon a measure was passed changing the 
charter of Massachusetts in several particulars, one of 



SAMUEL ADAMS 7 1 

which would prevent so many and such free town meet- 
ings. Another allowed any person accused of a capital 
offence committed in the line of duty to be allowed trial 
in any other colony or in Great Britain. Future Captain 
Prestons and massacre soldiers were not to be endangered 
by a colonial jury. To these acts was added one of the 
previous year for quartering troops on the town of 
Boston. Many also included the Quebec Act, extending 
that province down as far as the Ohio river, among these 
" intolerable acts " as they were called in America. In 
England, they were felt to be natural punishments and 
were known as the "repressive acts." 

On Tuesday, May 10, 1774, Captain Shayler brought 
a copy of the Port Bill into Boston. On the 13th, the 
town meeting, with Samuel Adams as moderator, voted 
" that if the other colonies come into a joint Resolution 
to stop all Importations from Great Britain and Expor- 
tations to Great Britain and every part of the West 
Indies, till the Act for Blocking up this Harbor be 
repealed, the same will prove the Salvation of North 
America and her Liberties." At a subsequent meeting, 
the moderator informed the people that the resolutions 
had been forwarded to the " Several Provinces by Mr. 
Riviere." 

Local results followed immediately. The neighboring 
towns showed a willingness to enter into the desired 
agreement of non-intercourse with Great Britain. But 
a ready assent from the large cities could scarcely be 
expected, although so much desired by Boston. Such 
agreements were hard to enforce in thirteen colonies, 
extending over a wide area and having such diversified 
interests and so few means of communication. Those 



72 THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATION 

formed in the past by committees of correspondence had 
caused bitter feeHngs and had not long endured. But 
if these committees or their representatives could meet 
in some kind of a convention many of these differences 
might be reconciled and an agreement drawn up which 
would hold. From all sides came spontaneously the 
suggestion of a Congress or diplomatic convention like 
those called by the nations of Europe at different times 
for considering affairs of mutual interest. There was a 
precedent for such action in the Stamp Act Congress at 
New York nine years before. 

Thus the committees of correspondence were fulfil- 
ling a prophecy made by a member of the House of 
Commons some time before: "The Committees of 
Correspondence in different provinces are in constant 
communication . . . they do not trust the conveyance 
of the Post-Office . . . they have set up a constitutional 
courier which will soon grow up to the superseding of 
your Post-Office. As soon as intelligence of these 
affairs reaches them, they will judge it necessary to 
communicate with each other. It will be found incon- 
venient and ineffectual by letters . . . they must confer. 
They will hold a conference . . . and to what these 
committees, thus met in congress, will grow up, I will 
not say." 

September as a time for the Congress would give 
sufficient notice for preparation, and Philadelphia as a 
central city, easy of access, would prove a good place. A 
meeting in that city might also persuade the Quakers 
to look upon the Boston situation more favorably than 
they seemed at first inclined. Although keenly alive to 
the unjust policy of Great Britain, they were opposed to 



SAMUEL ADAMS 73 

any measures which might look Hke resistance. They 
had also an aversion to the town meeting and Boston 
methods in general. Only by finesse and skilful ma- 
nipulation on the part of leading spirits was a meeting 
held there and even a moderately sustaining reply re- 
turned to Boston. 

Nor was the first feeling at New York much better. 
Revere had delivered his appeal to the recognized Sons 
of Liberty, Sears, MacDougall and others, who at once 
returned an assurance to Boston that " the city of New 
York would heartily join them against the cruel and 
arbitrary proceedings of the British Parliament." But 
the mercantile and Church of England element became 
alarmed at this encouragement of the destruction of 
property by "the Presbyterian junto or self-constituted 
Sons of Liberty (as they styled themselves) which had 
stood ever since the time of the Stamp Act," and 
appointed a new committee of fifty-one. This com- 
mittee sent a letter to Boston which repudiated the 
cheering response of the Sons of Liberty. " We lament 
over our inability to relieve your anxiety by a decisive 
opinion. ... A Congress of Deputies from the colonies 
in general is of the utmost moment. . . . Such being 
our sentiments it must be premature to pronounce 
any judgment on the expedient which you have sug- 
gested." ^ 

Was this cool reply a warning to impetuous Boston 
that she was to be deserted.'* The first day of June, 
when the Port Bill went into effect, would tell. At noon 
of that day, the Custom House and all courts of Boston 
were closed, and the records placed in carts to be trans- 

1 Force's "Archives," 4th Series, I., 300. 



74 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

ported to Salem, the new capital. Two men-of-war 
swung idly with the tide in the harbor. The patriots 
solemnly tolled the bells, placed their flags at half-mast, 
and awaited further events. The proposed Congress 
was not to meet until September ; what was to become 
of Boston in the meantime } The Harvard Commence- 
ment exercises were abandoned because of " the dark 
aspect of our public affairs." Very soon from New York 
came the cheering intelligence that the day had been 
observed generally by tolling bells and lowered flags, 
although the fast had not been carried out by the clergy. 
From Virginia came the proclamation of a day of fast- 
ing and prayer ordered by the burgesses, who attended 
church and listened to their chaplain, after the rector had 
refused to preach on such occasion. Philadelphia sent 
word that business had been generally suspended and 
the bells tolled, although the Quakers denied the former 
statement and the sexton of Christ Church the latter. 
Thus evidences were not wanting that the patriots were 
to have a home as well as a foreign contest. 

The hardships of the Port Bill were soon felt in 
Boston. The firewood which had been carried into the 
city from the bay and adjacent parts of the coast could 
not now be brought in without being taken to Marble- 
head or Salem, greatly increasing the price and causing 
suffering to the poor. Material for house building or 
similar work had to be carted thirty miles from those 
ports, and building operations were stopped by the in- 
creased expense. The vessels on the stocks were aban- 
doned, since they could not be launched if completed. 
The ropewalks which supplied the shipyards were idle. 
New barracks were to be erected for the additional 



SAMUEL ADAMS 75 

troops being brought into the city, but the needy me- 
chanics scorned the opportunity of such labor. 

Boston had always been attentive to her poor, and 
one of her first concerns had been for them when their 
regular means of employment were thus taken away. 
A committee was appointed by the town meeting for 
providing some ways and means of furnishing instant 
employment for the poor. As a temporary expedient, 
it set men to work repairing and repaving the streets 
of the town, their wages being paid by public contribu- 
tion. A brickyard was operated on the Neck which 
furnished employment to a hundred poor men. Wool, 
flax, and cotton were bought to give labor to poor 
women. It was planned to begin the erection of a 
building and the making of a vessel, both to be sold 
at auction when completed, but the restriction of the 
Port Bill made the procuring of raw material well-nigh 
impossible. Leather was furnished to the shoemakers 
and iron to the blacksmiths, and their finished work 
taken in payment. Some shoes and axes so made were 
sent to Virginia for sale. 

Samuel Adams was made the head of a committee to 
receive and distribute donations. The reply to the call 
for aid made this office no sinecure. P'rom Windham, 
Connecticut, twenty-seven days after the port was closed, 
came a notification that " a small flock of sheep, which 
at this season are not so good as we could wish, but are 
the best we had," was upon the road to feed the poor 
of the town of Boston. Other similar offerings fol- 
lowed, "appeasing the fire of the ministry by the blood 
of rams and lambs," until the number reached over 
three thousand. Cattle often accompanied the sheep. 



-je THE MEiV WHO MADE THE NATION 

The merchants of Marblehead and Salem gave free use 
of their wharves and warehouses, and the carters gratui- 
tously carried over the thirty miles into Boston the sup- 
plies of rice, wheat, corn, flour, fish, and oil which 
poured in from all along the Atlantic coast. A sloop 
loaded with supplies was brought from Cape Fear by 
Marblehead into Boston, the captain and sailors serving 
gratis.^ 

The "Constitutional Society" of London sent ;^ioo, 
and many smaller sums came over seas from private 
individuals. Over ^looo was acknowledged at one 
time from New York. The English inhabitants of 
Montreal forwarded ^loo. Even the Quakers, al- 
though they could not countenance measures of vio- 
lence, preserved their reputation for charity by sending 
^2540 to Boston. 2 

Samuel Adams manifested no impatience at the fail- 
ure of Philadelphia and New York to come into a non- 
intercourse agreement without the intervention of a 
Congress. John Adams declared the Philadelphia reply 
"cool and calculating." But both men fell readily into 
the plan of such a meeting. The important point in 
Massachusetts was to find some body qualified to 
name delegates to represent the colony. Most fortu- 
nately. General Gage, who had been appointed cap- 
tain-general, governor-in-chief, and vice-admiral, had 
prorogued the Massachusetts General Court from its 
May meeting in Boston to June 7, at the new capital, 
Salem. Samuel Adams was both a member of the 

^ This entire subject of the relief of Boston may be studied in the 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th Series, Vol. IV., 1858. 
^ Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. I., p. i63. 



SAMUEL ADAMS yy 

Assembly and its clerk. In Salem he inaugurated fre- 
quent caucuses of trusty members, gradually making 
up his majority. Many in Boston were at first willing 
to pay for the tea instead of continuing resistance in 
the proposed Congress. The mechanics held a meeting 
for that purpose. A public letter from Philadelphia 
urged it. But in the Boston town meetings, Warren 
urged an opposite course and kept public sentiment 
abreast of its representatives in Salem. 

On Friday, June 17, 1774, a resolution passed the 
Assembly at Salem to lock the doors, and another was 
presented providing for the appointment of five delegates 
to represent Massachusetts in the proposed conference or 
Congress at Philadelphia. Upon plea of illness a member 
was allowed to leave the room. He ran at once to inform 
Gage of the unauthorized proceeding. Flucker, the 
governor's secretary, was sent immediately with an order 
dissolving the Assembly, )'et knocked in vain upon the 
door. The key by this time had found its way into 
Samuel Adams's pocket. The baffled secretary stood 
upon the landing at the head of the stairway and read 
the order in a loud voice, but it was heard only by a 
number of idlers and a few members of the House who 
for some reason were not inside. Within the room the 
action was taken which chose as a committee to the pro- 
posed Congress "the Hon. James Bowdoin, P2sq., the 
Hon. Thomas Cushing, Esq., Mr. Samuel Adams, John 
Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, Esq." The vote stood 
117 to 12. The sum of £,S'^o was given for their ex- 
penses, to be raised by a voluntary contribution from 
each town. This task being finished, the Assembly 
voluntarily adjourned, the door was unlocked, and the 



78 THE MEN irifO MADE THE NAT/OAT 

Massachusetts legislature under the king had passed 
away forever. But from its labors came the Provincial 
Congress of the Massachusetts Colony, which instituted 
revolutionary local government, and the "Continental " ^ 
Congress at Philadelphia, which was destined to inaugu- 
rate a national Revolutionary government. 

The long-continued agitations of Samuel Adams had 
brought results. The scene changes to Philadelphia 
and the agency from the New England town meeting 
to a national Congress. It was fitting that the town 
clerk of Boston should make this entry : 

At an Adjournment of the Port Bill Meeting Tuesday, Octo- 
ber 25th, 1774. Ten o'clock before Noon — 

M^ Samuel Adams, the Moderator of this Meeting being 
now at the Continental Congress, it was moved that a Pro. Teni. 
Moderator be now chosen by a Hand Vote. 

1 So called because it was said to represent the continent. 



CHAPTER III 

JOHN ADAMS, THE PARTISAN OF INDEPENDENCE 

Philadelphia, August 29. 
The Hon. Tlionias Cufhing, Efq ; Mr. 
Samuel Adams. John Adams, and Robert 
Treat Paine, Efquires, Delegates from Bof- 
ton, are expected in town this evening. — 
Pennfylvania I'txcket. 

The delegates sent by the various colonies to the first 
Continental Congress were little likely to receive an 
official greeting when they arrived in Philadelphia. 
Governor Penn had reported exultingly to Lord Dart- 
mouth that the prior proceedings in Pennsylvania were 
likely to prove a check rather than an encouragement 
to the rebellion. Yet they were tendered a greeting, 
hearty though unofficial, by the Sons of Liberty. 

The recognized leader of these few " liberty men " 
of Philadelphia was Charles Thomson, a merchant of 
noted integrity. He had enjoyed an active correspond- 
ence with Franklin in England during the Stamp Act 
and later controversies, and many extracts from his let- 
ters to the colonial agent found their way into the Lon- 
don newspapers. Associated with him in the early 
non-importation agitation was another merchant, Thomas 
Mifflin, who had travelled in England, but came home 
an ardent patriot. Mifflin had been in Boston, in 1773, 
attending the funeral of his mother and had met the two 

79 



8o THE MEN WHO MADE THE N'ATION' . 

Adamses and kindred spirits. Notwithstanding the sad 
occasion, no doubt the exciting political questions of the 
day were discussed at the table of Dr. Cooper. Certainly- 
after the tea, John Adams thought the visitor " a very 
sensible and agreeable man." ^ 

Joseph Reed was a young lawyer who had studied in 
England and four years before Congress met had 
brought home as a bride, Esther, the daughter of Dennys 
De Berdt. ^ His strong English friendship and his cor- 
respondence with Lord Hillsborough made him an object 
of suspicion, which his unwearied efforts in the patriot 
cause had not wholly removed. 

More generally known was John Dickinson, the author 
of the "Farmer's Letters," acknowledged to be" the 
most masterly presentation of the patriot position 
under the Townshend Acts. In them he advocated 
protests and petitions, but no violence. Since their pub- 
lication he had married into a Quaker family, and, as 
Thomson confessed, " his sentiments were not generally 
known. The Quakers courted and seemed to depend 
on him. The other party from his past conduct hoped 
for his assistance but were not sure how he would go 
if matters came to an extremity."^ Dickinson and 
Thomson had married cousins and w^ere much together. 

^ The many quDtalions in this chapter from John Adams are taken from 
the twelve-volume edition of his " Works," usually volume second. 

2 Esther De Berdt Reed won lasting fame by heading a movement in 
Philadelphia for the relief of the Revolutionary troops. See Sparks's 
" Washington," Vol. VII., pp. 90, 408, and Reed's " Life and Correspon- 
dence of Joseph Reed." 

8 New York Historical Society Collections, 1879, Vol. XI., p. 275. 
" The Papers of Charles Thomson." Among these papers is a description 
by Thomson of the strategy used in bringing Dickinson to the support of 
the cause of Boston. 



JOHN ADAMS 8 1 

Thomson told John Adams that Dickinson's patriotism 
was checked by his mother and his wife ; that his mother 
said to liim, " Johnny, you will be hanged ; your estate 
will be forfeited and confiscated ; you will leave your 
excellent wife a widow, and your charming children 
orphans, beggars, and infamous." 

During the summer Dickinson, Mifflin, and Thomson 
made a tour through the " frontier " counties of Pennsyl- 
vania about Reading and York to ascertain the feeling 
of the Germans. They succeeded in getting Dickinson 
added to the list of Pennsylvania delegates to the Con- 
gress. Mifflin had already been chosen. No doubt 
Joseph Galloway, a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and 
friend of Franklin, would be found the most conservative 
of the seven delegates. Even now his attitude to the 
cause foreshadowed his desertion to the king two years 
later, when the present of a halter in a box warned him 
of the possible fate in store for him. Rhoads was a 
wealthy Quaker, who soon left the Congress upon being 
chosen mayor of Philadelphia. Biddle was a lawyer from 
Reading, and Ross a lawyer from Lancaster. Morton 
and Humphreys, country farmers of the better class, 
completed the list of Pennsylvania representatives to the 
Congress. 

Wednesday, August lo, the South Carolina packet 
from Charleston reached the wharf at Philadelphia and 
Henry Middleton and Edward Rutledge walked ashore, 
to be met no doubt by some of Philadelphia's kindred 
spirits. Middleton came of an influential South Caro- 
lina family, and was an extensive planter with an estate 
estimated at fifty thousand acres and employing eight 
hundred slaves. He had been speaker of the Commons 



82 THE MEAT WHO MADE THE JVAT/O.V 

of his colony and for almost twenty years a member of 
its Council. Edward Rutledge was Middleton's son-in- 
law, and Mrs. Rutledge accompanied the two gentlemen. 
Rutledge was only twenty-five years old, but had studied 
law in England, and when his fiery disposition should be 
tempered by age promised to rival in reputation his 
elder brother, John. 

John Rutledge had also been trained in the law courts 
of England, as was the custom in the southern colo- 
nies.^ As attorney for the planters, he had gained great 
influence, and it was undoubtedly through his efforts 
that the important colony of South Carolina was to be 
represented in Congress. He was, of course, a delegate 
and came from Charleston to New York in the Betsy, 
accompanied by his wife, his sister, and his son, mak- 
ing the voyage in ten days. At New York he joined 
the Massachusetts delegates and accompanied them to 
Philadelphia. 

Rutledge's planter friends, Thomas Lynch and 
Christopher Gadsden, took passage on the Sea NyvipJi 
from Charleston and in one week reached Philadelphia. 
Lynch was accompanied by his wife and daughter. 
Lodgings were secured for them at Mrs. McKenzie's. 
The three had been in Boston the summer before the 
tea was destroyed, and Mr. Lynch had been sounded by 
the Boston patriots. They found him, so John Adams 
says, " a solid, sensible, though a plain man ; a hearty 
friend to America and her righteous cause." 

Gadsden was a trader-planter of the true colonial type. 
The Boston delegates would be glad to meet him, since, 

1 See the second chapter of .Stillc's " Life and Times of John Dick- 
inson " on the lack of facilities for legal training in the colonies. 



JOHN ADAMS 83 

in the midst of the many suggestions sent to them that 
they make compensation for the destroyed tea and so 
release their harbor, bluff Gadsden had written to them, 

" Never pay for an ounce of the Tea ! " ^ Gadsden, 

Lynch, and John Rutledge would be welcomed by Dick- 
inson, whom they had met in the Stamp Act Congress 
in New York nine years before. Also Rodney and 
McKean of Delaware, Dyer of Connecticut, and Will- 
iam Livingston of New Jersey, would remember the 
introduction in that former gathering. 

The last week in August, Major Sullivan and Colonel 
Folsom of New Hampshire arrived at Philadelphia. 
They had started from Portsmouth two weeks before, 
coming by Rhode Island. New York was reached by 
packet on Sunday morning, and no doubt they would 
have remained there a few days with the Sons of Liberty, 
but the small-pox was raging, and neither of them had 
become immune. ^ They therefore hurried on across 
the ferry for Philadelphia, where the story of their 
appointment had preceded them. It seemed that the 
royal governor of their colony had dissolved the Assem- 
bly for appointing a committee of correspondence and 
subsequently broke up a meeting of the committee. 
When a convention was called and nominated a physi- 
cian and a lawyer to serve as delegates to the proposed 
Congress, the nominees declined such dangerous ser- 
vice. Folsom and Sullivan were then chosen and ac- 
cepted, although at no small chance of sacrifice, since 

1 Force's "Archives," 4th Series, Vol. I., p. 392. 

2 Inoculation was ]<nown, but distrusted by many. John Adams's chil- 
dren were inoculated at home while he was at Philadelphia. Ex-Governor 
Ward, of Connecticut, refused inoculation and died of the small-pox dur- 
ing the second session of Congress. 



84 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Folsom was a colonel and Sullivan a major in the New 
Hampshire militia. 

But amidst all these arrivals there was inquiry for the 
real lions of the occasion — the men from suffering 
Boston. The honor due them was paid on Monday, the 
29th, when a number of the delegates and gentlemen 
of Philadelphia rode out to a suburb of the city to wel- 
come Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
and Robert Treat Paine. The fifth delegate, James 
Bowdoin, was deterred from undertaking the journey 
because of his feeble health. 

Notwithstanding the thick fog prevailing in Boston 
on the morning of their departure three weeks before, 
a number of gentlemen accompanied them from Mr. 
Cushing's house as far as Watertown, where "an 
elegant entertainment" was provided for them. Rumor 
said that Gage would prevent their departure to partici- 
pate in this unsanctioned convention, and such ostenta- 
tion may have been a challenge. But no attempt was 
made to accept it. In fact, when one of the four horses 
which drew their carriage balked near the Gommon, 
the captain of a company of regulars encamped there 
jokingly suggested to them that their coachmen must 
have made a mistake and put in a Tory horse. 

The summer of 1774 was exceedingly warm, and the 
heat was intensified by a long-continued drought. A 
letter from Mrs. Adams overtook her husband at New 
York describing a rain " which lasted twelve hours and 
has greatly revived the dying fruits of the earth." ^ 
Travelling was not pleasant under such circumstances, 

1 The quotations of Mrs. Adams are taken from "The Familiar Letters 
of John Adams and his Wife." 



JOHN ADAMS 85 

yet the receptions accorded the delegates made them 
forget the heat and the dust. Coming into a town 
"cannon were fired, all the bells were set to ringing, 
and people crowded to their windows as if it were to 
see a coronation." Dinners, punch, wine, and coffee 
marked the evenings. " No Governor of a Province 
nor General of an army was ever treated with so much 
ceremony and assiduity as we have been throughout the 
whole of Connecticut,*' wrote John Adams. 

In ten days they had reached New York and taken 
private lodgings in King street near the City Hall. 
Little did John Adams think as he looked at this build- 
ing that he would one day preside over a Senate within 
its walls. Here they tarried a week, holding interviews 
with the Sons of Liberty, meeting prominent citizens 
and trying to break down the prevailing fear of the 
" levelling spirit " of New England, as well as the " Epis- 
copalian prejudices " in New York. There was too 
much "breakfasting, dining, drinking coffee, &c." to 
please the more serious New England men, who would 
have preferred to examine the college, the churches, the 
printers' offices, and booksellers' shops. 

At Princeton College, they were entertained by Presi- 
dent Witherspoon, " as high a son of liberty as any man 
in America." His students were all Sons of Liberty, 
although in chapel " they sang as badly as the Presby- 
terians at New York." He exhibited to the visitors an 
orrery or planetarium made by Dr. David Rittenhouse, 
of Philadelphia, which showed the movements of the 
heavenly bodies. He also charged a bottle with elec- 
tricity, but the air was unfavorable to seeing the flash. 
The visitors did not fail to chmb to the balcony of the 



S6 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

four-story college building to obtain the view " eighty 
miles in diameter." 

They tarried at Princeton over Sunday and received 
a number of callers. On Monday, they reached Phila- 
delphia, to be escorted into the city as described. 
Although travel-stained, they were carried to a tav- 
ern — " the most genteel in America " it seemed to 
them. Here they found others of the delegates assem- 
bled, and soon all sat down to an "elegant" supper, 
which continued until eleven o'clock. 

The next evening the Connecticut delegates reached 
Philadelphia. They were a most incongruous trio. 
Silas Deane had been a Connecticut schoolmaster who 
had risen through two fortunate marriages, the first 
bringing him wealth, and the second, social position. 
His political and social aspirations made him a ready 
mark for gossip, and it was rumored that he had been 
chosen a delegate by his own deciding vote. 

Roger Sherman was Deane's opposite — a plain, self- 
made man, who had advanced from the shoemaker's 
bench to a judgeship in the superior court of his colony. 
Deane wrote home that Sherman was as " badly calcu- 
lated to appear in such Company as a chestnut burr is 
for an eye-stone."^ He had an "odd and countrified 
cadence " when he spoke, which was mortifying to the 
sensitive Deane. When they were obliged to occupy the 
same chamber at the little inns on the journey, Sher- 
man's snoring was an annoyance to Deane, who "turn'd 
and turn'd and groan'd " in concert. At one tavern 
"there was no fruit, bad rum, and nothing of the meat 

1 The quotations from Silas Deane may be found in tlie New York His- 
torical Society Collections, Vol. XIX., iS86, "The Deane Papers." 



JOHN ADAMS 87 

kind but salt pork." At another, one of the company 
had to go out and " knock over " three or four chickens 
to be roasted for dinner. No porter was to be had, the 
cheese was bad, and the only palatable drink was some 
" excellent bottle-cyder." The weather was excessively 
warm and the days without a breath of air. Deane was 
for sending the carriages over the ferry from New York 
on Sunday evening to get an early start on Monday 
morning through the Jerseys. But the conscientious 
Sherman would not break the Sabbath, and the travel- 
lers were delayed the next morning at the ferry till ten 
o'clock, and then compelled to take a hand at the oars, 
since there was a dead calm. 

Colonel Eliphaiet Dyer, the third Connecticut delegate, 
was a soldier-lawyer, a graduate of Yale, as was Deane, 
and was probably less a source of complaint than Sher- 
man. Yet he had an annoying way of taking the leader- 
ship on a journey and becoming " foolishly swamped " 
in his directions. 

Rhode Island had sent down an oddly assorted pair, 
Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins. Ward had been 
many times governor of that colony, as had his father 
before him. The succession of his terms had been 
broken only when his great rival, Stephen Hopkins, 
defeated him. For years a bitter contest went on 
between the factions led by these two men. The breach 
was at last healed by Hopkins resigning in the midst 
of a term, and the rivals became friends to embark in 
the patriotic cause. ^ 

* Because of a paralytic stroke, Hopkins, now sixty-seven years old, 
could sign his name only by guiding his right hand with his left. When 
the facsimile of the signatures to the Declaration of Independence were 



88 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

The first day of September fell upon Thursday. But 
no delegates had yet arrived from New York, North 
Carolina, nor the influential Virginia, and it was tacitly 
agreed to wait until the following Monday before organ- 
izing. On Friday, four of the Virginians arrived, and 
the Massachusetts delegates went at once to the tavern 
to pay their respects. They were found to be " the 
most spirited and consistent of any. Harrison said he 
would have come on foot rather than not come. Bland 
said he would have gone, upon this occasion, if it had 
been to Jericho." Benjamin Harrison was a Virginia 
planter, very fleshy and of gouty tendency. The thought 
of his walking to Philadelphia was one of the many 
jokes for which he was noted. Richard Bland had been 
educated at William and Mary College and at Edinburgh 
University, and had placed his pen entirely at the ser- 
vice of the colonial cause. Harrison's brother-in-law, the 
Honorable Peyton Randolph, another of the delegates, 
had won renown as speaker of the Virginia House of 
Burgesses, and it was early understood that his expe- 
rience as a presiding ofificer, no less than the compliment 
to the great colony of Virginia, would make him chair- 
man of the Congress when it should be organized. 

Richard Henry Lee, the fourth of the newcomers, 
was no doubt greeted heartily by Samuel Adams. For 
some time they had corresponded on the American 
grievances, having been introduced by letter through 
Lee's brother, Arthur, but had never met until brought 
together in this first Continental Congress. 

first sent to England, the trembling penmanship of Stephen Hopkins was 
by some attributed to his fear lest he be hanged for signing the rebel 
document. 



JOHN ADAMS 89 

The Lee family had become estranged from the gov- 
ernment during the long-continued disputes between 
the crown and the colony over the disposition of the 
western lands and their protection against the Indians 
and the encroaching French. Into this contest the Vir- 
ginia militia was naturally drawn. Their oflEicers were 
neglected and snubbed, and their leader, a certain Colonel 
George Washington, had his passionate temper roused 
to resignation more than once. His idea of duty, to 
which he held himself strictly, alone kept him faithful 
to the royal government. But when the news of the 
Port Bill reached Williamsburg and the Assembly was 
dissolved by the angry governor for appointing June 
1st a day of fasting and prayer,^ Colonel Washington 
did not hesitate to join the other members of the As- 
sembly in the Apollo room of the Raleigh tavern and 
to draw up resolutions supporting Boston. 

The Massachusetts delegates were anxious to see this 
Colonel Washington. Lynch, of South Carolina, had 
told them that in the Virginia convention which selected 
the delegates from that colony, Washington felt so out- 
raged by the treatment of Boston that he arose and 
made a fiery speech, although he had always been 
marked both for his calmness and his diffidence in pub- 
lic speaking. He threatened to raise a thousand men 
at his own expense, place himself at their head, and 
march to the relief of Boston. Having acquired a vast 
fortune by inheritance and marriage^ and having been 

1 "June 1st, Wednesday, Went to Church, and fasted all day.'' Wash- 
ington's diary in Sparks's " Washington," Vol. II., p. 487. 

2 He had inherited from his half-brother, Lawrence, twenty-five hun- 
dred acres on the Potomac, including Mount Vernon. From the bounty 
lands of the Indian wars, he had earned and purchased almost fifty thou- 



90 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

trained by twenty years of service in the Virginia militia, 
there was no doubt that this tall Virginian could carry 
out his threat if it became necessary. 

In the Virginia Assembly, Washington had come in 
contact with Patrick Henry, the Samuel Adams of Vir- 
ginia. Like Adams, Henry had proven a poor business 
man, but an efficient political agitator. With barely 
enough legal knowledge for admission to the bar ^ he 
had entered upon his career of church and government 
opposition in the " Parson's Cause." From that day he 
associated with the opponents to the Estabhshed church, 
although his uncle was a rector. He championed the 
young democracy arrayed against the ancient Virginia 
aristocracy. He became the spokesman of the common 
people. His opponents at first ridiculed his up-country 
pronunciation, his ungrammatical language, and his awk- 
ward and violent gestures.^ A vestryman in the Estab- 
lished church described him as " a real half Quaker, — 
moderate and mild, and in rehgious matters a saint ; but 
the very d 1 in politics, — a son of thunder."^ En- 
emies advised him to confine himself to the fiddle, with 
which it must be confessed he made a better showing than 
with the law. But however crude, his oratory was so mov- 

sand acres. Mrs. Custis brought him fifteen thousand acres, between two 
and three hundred negroes, and eight to ten thousand pounds in bond. 
The death of Mrs. Custis's daughter added another ten thousand pounds 
to Washington's fortune according to the Virginia laws. 

' Thomas Jefferson, the early admirer of Henry, says that after reading 
law for six weeks Henry prevailed upon Peyton Randolph and John 
Randolph to sign his license to practise. The third necessary signature 
was obtained, but the fourth examiner, Wythe, refused to sign a permit 
so poorly earned. 

'^ See Henry's " Life of Patrick Henry," Vol. I., p. 209. 

8 From a letter quoted in Meade's " History of Old Churches and 
Families of Virginia, Vol. I., p. 220. 



JOHN ADAMS 91 

ing and so daring that his nickname " the Demosthenes 
of the age " was known even in the northern colonies. 

Upon invitation of Washington, Henry and Pendleton 
had stopped over night at Mount Vernon on their way 
to Philadelphia. Edmund Pendleton was a country jus- 
tice, a popular leader, and a devout churchman. He 
was much pleased with the calm, strong character of 
Mrs. Washington. In letters written soon afterward, he 
described her urging the three gentlemen to stand firm 
in the Congress and adding, " I know George will." He 
also said that, as the three rode away the following morn- 
ing, she stood on the doorstep and waved her hand and 
said, " Good-by, God be with you, gentlemen." Devo- 
tion to the cause outweighed her fears for her husband's 
safety. The three men reached Philadelphia on Sun- 
day, September 4, having been five days on the horse- 
back journey from Mount Vernon. 

John Jay, a young lawyer of New York, had married 
the daughter of William Livingston a few weeks before 
Congress met. Livingston had retired from the practice 
of law in New York and had built a residence in New 
Jersey which he called "Liberty Hall." Jay was a 
delegate from New York as Livingston was from New 
Jersey. Jay therefore departed quietly from New York 
and joined Livingston, the two riding on to Philadelphia. 
The four other delegates from New York City were 
given a noisy farewell when they departed. John Adams 
described Duane as "a little squint-eyed" and "very 
artful." Livingston, Alsop, and Low were merchants. 
Boerum and Wisner, two country delegates, came later. 
Many of these soon dropped out of sight, as did all the 
New Jersey delegates save Livingston. It is reasonable 



92 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

to suppose that the fittest were not always selected in 
this iirst irregularly chosen assembly. It was a revolt 
of the people against the government. New leaders 
would appear only in the process of time. 

On Monday morning, September 5, all the delegates 
thus far arrived met at the City tavern at ten o'clock to 
march to the place of meeting. Quite a spirited contest 
had sprung up between the Philadelphia factions con- 
cerning which hall the Congress should meet in. Gal- 
loway, the influential speaker of the Assembly, insisted 
upon the sessions being held in the State House. In 
his official capacity he extended such an invitation, but 
friends of Thomson, whom Galloway had kept from being 
chosen in the list of Pennsylvania delegates, suggested 
the hall built by the Carpenters' Association. This 
organization of workingmen was almost a half-century 
old. Their building was not quite complete, but was 
ready for occupancy. The main room was ample, and 
overhead were two rooms with a long entry between, 
where the delegates could take exercise. One of these 
upper rooms contained the carpenters' library, the use 
of which had been offered the Congress. 

Starting from the tavern, the delegates marched down 
Second street to Chestnut and up Chestnut to a little 
court, at the farther end of which stood the carpenters' 
building. Having entered and examined it, there was 
"a general cry," says John Adams, "that this was a 
good room," although, no doubt, Galloway dissented 
from the affirmative vote which followed. It was the 
first victory for Thomson and the radicals, and it was 
at once followed by a second in the choice of a secre- 
tary. Duane and Jay of New York had probably 



JOHiV ADAMS 



93 



already conferred with Galloway and other conserva- 
tives, and they therefore opposed the motion of Lynch 
that Thomson be made secretary. John Adams had 
been attracted to Thomson on learning' that he was 




"the Samuel Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the 
cause of liberty," and the interest had not decreased 
on hearing that he was " about marrying a lady, a 
relation of Mr. Dickinson's, with five thousand pounds 

sterlinc^." 



94 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION- 

Thomson himself describes thus his introduction to 
the Congress : 

" I was married to my second wife on a Thursday ; on the 
next Monday I came to town to pay my respects to my wife's 
aunt and the family. Just as I alighted in Chestnut street, the 
doorkeeper of Congress (then first met) accosted me with a 
message from them requesting my presence. Surprised at this, 
and not able to divine why I was wanted, I, however, bade my 
servant to put up the horses, and followed the messenger my- 
self to the Carpenters' Hall, and entered Congress. Here was, 
indeed, an august assembly, and deep thought and solemn 
anxiety were observable on their countenances. I walked up 
the aisle, and standing opposite to the President, I bowed, and 
told him I awaited his pleasure. He replied, ' Congress desire 
the favor of you, sir, to take their minutes.' I bowed in 
acquiescence, and took my seat at the desk. After a short 
silence, Patrick Henry arose to speak. I did not then know 
him ; he was dressed in a suit of parson's gray, and from his 
appearance, I took him for a Presbyterian clergyman, used to 
haranguing the people." ' 

An oath of secrecy was taken, the doors shut, and so 
began in embryo the popular government of the United 
Colonies of America. These men thus brought together 
by emergency were simply reflections of the diversified 
colonies they represented. They had a thousand old 
prejudices and grievances; they had only one impulse 
in common — to relieve the distress of some of their 
number, and possibly avoid a similar situation for them- 
selves. In their report to the governor of Connecticut, 
the delegates from that colony said, " An assembly like 
this, though it consists of less than si.xty members, yet, 

1 The American Quarterly Kez'icw, Vol. I., p. 30. 



JOHN ADAMS 95 

coming from remote Colonies, each of which has some 
modes of transacting publick business peculiar to itself, 
some particular Provincial rights and interests to guard 
and secure, must take some time to become so acquainted 
with each other's situations and connections." ^ 

Their sessions were full of discord. At one time in 
trying to come to an agreement of non-exportation to 
England, the South Carolina delegates, with the excep- 
tion of Gadsden, withdrew from the Congress for several 
days. When the Bostonians were pleading for such an 
association, certain other delegates reminded them that 
their John Hancock had imported tea once at least since 
the agreement of 1770, and had paid the duty on it. 
They could make no reply save that Hancock was only 
half owner of the vessel in question, and the partner 
must have ordered the tea. Once Galloway proposed 
a plan of union with England which would remove a 
few difficulties, but Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry 
cried out against it. Galloway afterward declared that 
he feared mob violence at this juncture. John Adams 
said that Henry had a " horrid opinion " of the conserva- 
tives like Galloway, Jay, and the Rutledges. " He is 
very impatient to see such fellows, and not be at liberty 
to describe them in their true colors." Adams him- 
self wrote down Edward Rutledge as " a perfect Bob- 
o-Lincoln, a swallow, a sparrow, a peacock." 

Religious differences were manifest at the first session. 
Among the delegates were " some Episcopalians, some 
Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and 
some Congregationalists." The question of opening 
the sessions with prayer was brought up, but so strong 

1 Force's "Archives," 4th Series, Vol. I., p. S54. 



JOHN ADAMS 



97 



were religious prejudices that all could not join in the 
same act of worship. On the second day the shrewd 
Samuel Adams discovered an opportunity to make use 
of this situation. He was a strict Congregationalist, 
yet he arose to say that he was no bigot, and could hear 
a prayer from any man who was a friend of his country. 
He therefore moved that the Rev. Mr. Duche(" Dush-ay 
they pronounce it"), an Episcopal clergyman, be requested 
to read prayers the following morning. Duche accepted 
the invitation, and read the collect for the seventh of 
September, the thirty-fifth Psalm, and made an extempo- 
raneous prayer. John Adams wrote to his wife that he 
never saw a better result in an audience: "It has had 
an excellent effect upon everybody here," and he advised 



KEY TO "FIRST PRAYER IN CONGRESS." 



1. Rev. Mr. Duche, Pa. 

2. Peyton Randolph, Va. 

3. George Washington, Va. 

4. Patrick Henry, Va. 

5. Samuel Adams, Mass. 

6. John Adams, Mass. 

7. Richard Henry Lee, Va. 

8. Charles Thomson, Pa. 

9. Edward Rutledge, S.C. 

10. Thomas Gushing, Mass 

11. Eliphalet Dyer, Conn. 

12. John Rutledge, S.C. 

13. Robert Treat Paine, Mass. 

14. George Read, Del. 

15. Silas Deane, Conn. 

16. Richard Smith, N.J. 

17. Philip Livingston, N.Y. 



18. John de Hart, N.J. 

19. Stephen Hopkins, R I. 

20. William Livingston, N.J, 

21. Thomas McKean, Del. 

22. Roger Sherman, Conu. 

23. William Paca, Md. 

24. Col. William Floyd, N.Y. 

25. .Stephen Crane, N.J. 

26. Samuel Chase, Md. 

27. John Morton, Pa. 

28. Thomas Mifflin, Pa. 

29. Samuel Ward, R.L 

30. Benjamin Harrison, Va. 

31. John Jay, N.Y. 

32. Isaac Low, N.Y. 

2,2,- Thomas Lynch, S.C. 
34. Caesar Rodney, Del. 



98 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION- 

'S^ his friends in New England to read the Psalm. Silas 
Deane pronounced the prayer worth riding a hundred 
miles to hear. It was "with such apparent sensibility 
of the scenes and business before us that even the 
Quakers shed tears." ^ What an interesting promise 
of comlrg union was this mingling of the Quaker and 
his lifelong opponent, the Church of England man, in 
a political convention. 

The letter in which Samuel Adams described this 
strategy to Dr. Warren was printed in the Boston news- 
papers and proved that the Church of England was not 
arrayed solidly against the cause, as was often claimed 
in the northern colonies.^ It also brought the Boston- 
ians into the good graces of the Church people. Joseph 
Reed called upon the Boston delegates to tell them that 
" they were never guilty of a more masterly stroke of pol- 
icy than in moving that Mr. Duche might read prayers. 
It has had a very good effect, etc." Galloway, anxious 
for conciliation, afterward averred that Samuel Adams, 
"by his superior application, managed at once the fac- 
tions in Congress at Philadelphia and the factions in 
New England." The Boston men managed to bind 
the colonies in a non-importation and non-exportation 
agreement and secured a pledge of the continent to 
Boston in the Suffolk resolutions.'^ 

1 Unfortunately, Duche did not continue to deserve these encomiums. 
When Howe captured Philadelphia, Duche lost courage and wrote to 
Washington, begging him to ask clemency. He afterward fled to England, 
his estate was confiscated, and he was declared an enemy to his country. 

2 Mrs. John Adams had written her husband, " ."^incc the news of the 
Quebec Bill arrived all the Church people here have hung their heads and 
will not converse on Politics, though ever so much provoked by the oppo- 
site party." "Familiar Letters," etc., p. 30. 

^ These were adopted in reply to an appeal from the people of .Suf- 



JOHN ADAMS 99 

This agreement was the most difficult matter to adjust 
in the entire session of Congress. The extent of country 
and variety of climate involved caused a difference of 
products and interests well-nigh irreconcilable. The 
commercial interests of the north could depend upon 
internal trade and could open commerce with other 
countries after intercourse with Great Britain had been 
stopped. The agricultural interests of the south must 
suffer more keenly when the planters could no longer 
export their products to the English market where a 
demand had been created. As usual, many of the 
planters had already anticipated the sales of the present 
crops. For such reasons, the non-exportation of certain 
articles was not to go into immediate effect. 

Before leaving home, the Boston men had been cau- 
tioned to try to counteract the " opinion which does in 
some degree obtain in the other colonies that the Massa- 
chusetts gentlemen and especially of the town of Boston 
do effect to dictate and take the lead in Continental 
measures ; that we are apt from an inward vanity and 
self-control to assume big and haughty airs." ^ In return 
for the Suffolk resolution, the conservatives had been 
allowed only a few harmless addresses and a petition.'-^ 

folk county, in which Boston was located. They urged the Bostonians 
to be peaceful, but to rest assured that they were suffering in the common 
cause. The king pronounced them a virtual declaration of war against 
him. 

1 Joseph Hawley to John Adams. "Works of John Adams," Vol. IX., 
P- 344- 

2 The Congress drew up and adopted : a declaration of rights and 
grievances; an association of non-importation and non-exportation; an 
address to the people of Great Britain; an address to the inhabitants of 
the British colonies; an address to the people of St. John's, etc.; a 
letter to the colonial agents; an address to the inhabitants of the Province 
of Quebec; a petition to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 

LofC. 



lOO 



THE- MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/ OAT 



Samuel Adams could write to the provincial legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, " Things go without any motion 
of the Massachusetts members, as perfectly to my 
liking as if I were sole director." A Tory wrote, 



3y- '/ '" '-'■'■■ ■ ••-• '■^■'' ^V\''-'-^^ i;^„^'^ 












'7/4 



'V '" 











■iA.( --• 



T^ 



V 












Signatures to the Non-Importation Ai;KEK.MENr of the First 
Continental Congress 



"Adams with his crew and the haughty sultans of 
the South juggled the whole conclave of the dele- 
gates," and Admiral Montague said : " I doubt not but 
that I shall hear Mr. Samuel Adams is hansred or 



JOHN ADAMS 1 01 

shot before many months are at an end. I hope so, 
at least." ^ 

After almost two months' continuous sitting, Congress 
ordered its proceedings printed and then adjourned, but 
not without providing for another session the following 
May, when the roads could be travelled. There was to 
be no cessation of vigilance whilst danger threatened. 

These printed documents were the only manifest 
results of the Congress. But a far greater end had 
been unconsciously attained in the opportunity given 
representative men to look into each other's faces and 
read each other's thoughts. The influence of personal 
contact was apparent. Uniformity of ideas could not 
at once arise, but the little leaven had begun. With the 
return of the delegates to their homes the first impulses 
of Unionism began to be felt. A common cause made 
common feeling. The beginning of the making of the 
nation was at hand. 

Opportunity for personal contact was furnished the 
delegates not alone in the sessions of Congress and com- 
mittee meetings, but in the constant round of entertain- 
ment furnished them in the wealthy and happy city of 
Philadelphia. The second week of the Congress, a 
" grand entertainment " was given at the State House 
by the city to the delegates, where " about five hundred 
gentlemen sat down at once, and I will only say, there 
was a plenty of everything eatable and drinkable and 
no scarcity of good humor and diversion. We had, 
besides the delegates, gentlemen from every province 
on the Continent present." Near the close of the ses- 
sion, the delegates were given a banquet at the City 
1 Sargent's " Andre," p. 67. 



I02 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

tavern by the colonial legislature of Pennsylvania. 
Among the one hundred present were several Quakers. 
John Adams was much amused at the predicament of 
" two or three broadbrims over against me at table," 
when some one proposed as a toast " May the sword of 
the parent never be stained with the blood of the chil- 
dren." " One of them said, this is not a toast, but a 
prayer ; come, let us join in it. And they took their 
glasses accordingly." 

Washington was fifty-four days in Philadelphia, yet 
dined at his lodgings but nine times including Sundays. 
His diary confirms the letters and diaries of the other 
members. It is a round of feasts at Dr. Shippen's, or 
Chew's, or Joseph Reed's, or Willing's, or Pemberton's. 
John Dickinson drove into Philadelphia day after day in 
his coach drawn by four white horses to take delegates 
out to his beautiful country home where they could dine 
and talk politics. Silas Deane apologized to Mrs. Deane 
for his brief letters. " I am really hurried and have 
many more engagements than I wish for, though they 
are agreeable ; am engaged to dine out every day this 
week, once with Mr. Dickinson, and once with a Quaker 
just married. You will begin to suspect we do nothing 
else, but I assure you it is hard work. We meet at nine 
and sit until three, by which time we are unable to do 
anything but eat and drink the rest of the day." 

John Adams, of Puritanical inheritance and New 
England environment, was shocked by the display of 
eatables. His appetite overcame his scruples, although 
after each feast he scourged himself for yielding. " A 
most sinful feast again ! everything which could delight 
the eye or allure the taste." " A mighty feast again ; 



JOHN ADAMS 103 

nothing less than the very best of Claret, Madeira, and 
Burgundy." " A magnificent house, and a most splen- 
did feast and a very large company." " I drank Ma- 
deira at a great rate and found no inconvenience." " But 
this plain Friend and his plain though pretty wife, 
with her Thees and Thous, had provided us the most 
costly entertainment ; ducks, hams, chickens, beef, pig, 
tarts, creams, custards, jellies, fools, trifles, floating 
islands, beer, porter, punch, wine, and a long &c." At 
another feast he had "curds and creams, jellies, sweet- 
meats of various sorts, twenty sorts'of tarts, fools, trifles, 
floating islands, whipped sillabubs, &c. &c. Parmesan 
cheese, punch, wine, porter, beer, &c." To Mrs. 
Adams he declared that he should be killed with kind- 
ness in Philadelphia. " Yet," he adds, " I hold out 
surprisingly." 

Evidence is not wanting that the broadening of colo- 
nial minds under such circumstances had already be- 
gun. Deane wrote home that if he ever changed his 
religion he should turn Quaker. John Adams, perhaps 
for the first time in his life, entered a Roman chapel and 
found it " most awful and affecting." He was im- 
pressed by the services, the robes, the music, and espe- 
cially the picture of the Christ over the altar. He con- 
fessed himself unable to conceive how the Reformation 
had succeeded against such powerful agencies. Before 
he came to Philadelphia he had made many uncompli- 
mentary allusions in his writings about the cool, calcu- 
lating people of that city. But when he departed, he 
wrote : " Took our departure, in a very great rain, from 
the happy, the peaceful, the elegant, the hospitable, and 
polite city of Philadelphia. It is not very likely that I 



I04 THE MEiV WHO MADE J HE NAT/ON 

shall ever see this part of the world again, but I shall 
ever retain a most grateful, pleasing sense of the many 
civilities I have received in it, and shall think myself 
happy to have an opportunity of returning them."^ 

Government in England was unlikely to be influenced 
by resolutions and addresses from an irregular if not 
revolutionary gathering in the colonics. Some thought 
the members should have been brought to trial. In any 
event. Parliament took no healing action during the 
winter, and the people of America passed rapidly to 
advanced ground. Just before the delegates bade fare- 
well to each other, John Adams had shown to Patrick 
Henry a letter from Joseph Hawley of Massachusetts, 
in which the opinion was expressed that " after all we 
must fight." Henry, with an oath, declared himself to be 
of that man's mind, and he went home to ring the 
changes on the words. " We must fight " spread from 
colony to colony. Even Georgia, an unprotected fron- 
tier, dependent upon the bounty of the king and so pre- 
vented from taking part in the first Congress, began to 
be aroused. Old arms were brightened up, ammuni- 
tion was stored in secret places, and, especially in popu- 
lous Massachusetts, men were drilled to rush to Boston 
at a "minute's warning." 

The people of Boston saw no change save additional 

1 It was unlikely that all the inhabitants of Philadelphia would recipro- 
cate this feeling of Congress. Just after it closed, this stanza appeared : 

"Can public Virtue by me stand 
See Faction stalking through the Land? 

Fraction that Fiend, begot in II 

In Boston nurs'd — here bro.ught to dwell 
By Congress, who, in airy Freak 
Conven'd to plan a Reptiblick ? " 



JOHN' ADAMS IO5 

soldiers and additional fortifications as time went on. 
General Gage had three thousand soldiers to feed and 
sometimes feared lest he be starved out. At other 
times he was apprehensive of an attack from the fifteen 
thousand "minute-men" reported ready for action. 
Unwillingly he undertook the dangerous and humiliating 
task, suggested by the ministry, of disarming the rebels. 
But the patriots seemed to get warning of every sally of 
the troops, and the small amount of stores destroyed 
made the attempts ridiculous. 

Early in the spring it was rumored that a disarming 
expedition was contemplated out Concord way, the hot- 
bed of the rebels. On Sunday, April 16, Paul Revere 
rode quietly out to Lexington and warned Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock, the proscribed rebels, of 
their danger. The following Tuesday the rumor be- 
came a certainty. Some say that Mrs. Gage, who had 
been a native of New Jersey, betrayed the secret. Oth- 
ers think that the careless remark of a British hostler 
to a blacksmith, who chanced to be a Son of Liberty, 
showed that British troops were to start for Concord 
that night. Dr. Warren, uncertain which road they 
would take, sent off Dawes at two in the afternoon by 
the Neck ^ to warn the people and especially to notify 
Adams and Hancock. He also ordered Revere to be in 
readiness on the Charlestown side at midnight. 

"One if by land," and Revere need not have gone. 
But two lanterns shone from the Christ Church steeple. 

1 The narrow isthmus by which Boston was in tliose days connected 
with the mainland. Dawes reached Lexington alDout midnight, just after 
Revere came in. The lament of Dawes, because no poet has written of his 
ride, may be found in the Century Magazine for February, 1896, under the 
title, " What's in a Name?" 



I06 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

"Two if by sea," and Revere dashed off whilst the 
troops rowed " by sea " across to Charlestovvn. At day- 
break they met a handful of Americans on the green at 
Lexington, and before high noon had encountered the 
"embattled farmers" at the bridge just beyond the vil- 
lage of Concord. Then they began that awful return 
to Boston. " Seventy-three killed, one hundred and 
seventy-four wounded, and twenty-six missing, and 
probably prisoners," was the record made by the out- 
raged farmers as they ran along and knelt behind the 
stone fences bordering the New England highway. 

" Near lo of the Clock " that spring morning, even 
before the first gun had been fired at Concord, the effi- 
ciency of the patriot machinery was demonstrated. 
Trail Bissel had started from Watertown with a notice 
from the committee of correspondence " charged to 
alarm the country quite to Connecticut " about the skir- 
mish at Lexington. " A True Coppy taken from the 
Original " was endorsed on the paper at Worcester as the 
bearer sped onward. At eleven the following morning 
the news reached Brookline, and at four o'clock in the 
afternoon it was at Norwich, Connecticut. The New 
London committee endorsed it at seven o'clock that 
night, and those of Lyme an hour after midnight. 
Through Saybrook, Killingsworth, East Guilford, Guil- 
ford, Brand ford, New Haven, to Fairfield, it was passed 
to be overtaken by a second message bearing news of 
the later battle at Concord. " It wild [will] be Expedi- 
ent for every man to go who is fit & willing," added 
the committee. Sunday afternoon at four o'clock the 
travel-stained paper was in the New York committee 
chamber, having come from Watertown in a trifle over 



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Si'READiNi; ruE Alarm after Lexington 



I08 THE MEN WHO MADE THE N ATI OX 

four days. The following day it reached Philadelphia ^ 
and thence was passed southward to Charleston, South 
Carolina. Eight days after this "battle of the minute- 
men," Richard Denby, of Salem, sailed for England with 
the news, and on June i it was in the London news- 
papers. 

The response of America was immediate. Israel Put- 
nam left his farm work and led his men toward Boston. 
Dr. Warren left his patients in the care of another phy- 
sician and went out of Boston never to return. Brave 
Benedict Arnold assembled the sixty members of his 
Governor's Guard on the New Haven green, and, after 
browbeating the governor into giving them ammunition, 
started for Cambridge. Colonel John Stark and his 
fellow-farmers were on the way from New Hampshire. 
Colonel Thompson and his green-coated sharpshooters 
soon started from Philadelphia. On May i, the "associa- 
tions " of that city formed themselves into regular military 
companies, and two days later a Quaker company under 
Captain Humphries began to drill in the factory yard. 
When the delegates to the second Congress reached 
Philadelphia, after a triumphal journey, they found 
three thousand young men under arms, the drum and 
fife sounding in every street, and Silas Deane declared 
his "brainpan " was " echoing to the beat." 

The Congress which met in the State House in Phila- 
delphia in this second session was quite different from 
the one which had adjourned the previous autumn, 
although the membership was largely the same. New 

1 One of these alarms, or a copy of it, is preserved in the museum of 
the Pennsylvania Historical Society at Philadelphia. The first page is 
reproduced herewith. One of Bancroft's best passages ("History of the 
United States," \'ol. IV., p. 167) was written on the spread of this news. 



JOHK ADAMS 109 

conditions demanded different actions. Many of the 
members heard of Concord and Lexington while on 
their way to Philadelphia. Their worst fears were real- 
ized. Men had been shot down by a government ma- 
rauding party in those New England villages. The 
tragedy might be repeated on any green or beside any 
bridge on the continent. It was a national danger. 
For the first time a national agency was demanded. 
Therefore, the Congress, which had adjourned after 
petitioning and addressing, now became the agency of 
the helpless colonies. It assumed authority, and the 
people quietly acquiesced. Day by day the actions 
grew more defiant and even aggressive. 

When Peyton Randolph, the president of Congress, 
was called home to preside over the Virginia House of 
Burgesses, the Continental Congress seemed to take 
delight in making John Hancock, the proclaimed rebel, 
their president. They resolved that " these colonies be 
immediately put into a state of defence " ; and that " the 
militia of New York be armed and trained." They 
ordered the papers of a British officer to be opened and 
read. Wlien Massachusetts informed them that her 
civil government was broken up and requested direc- 
tions, they advised her people to choose an independent 
Assembly which they were to obey until a governor 
should be appointed by the king who "will consent to 
govern the colonies according to its charter." ^ They 
began to take measures to raise money for the war. 
They prepared rules for governing the army. 

Day by day they were driven into advanced steps. 

^ This was the real beginning of the transformation of the colonies into 
states. 



no THE MEN WHO MADE THE X ATI OX 

The rude crowd of minute-men and imperfectly organ- 
ized companies which had run to the relief of Boston 
was gathered about Cambridge, devoid of training, 
order, and discipline. The most intense rivalry and 
jealousy were manifest between colonies there repre- 
sented. Men of one colony refused to obey orders 
from an officer foreign to themselves. All was confu- 
sion. When a detachment was sent to fortify Bunker 
Hill, it took the liberty of fortifying Breed's Hill, half a 
mile nearer the enemy. This change eventually proved 
fortunate, but the disobedience showed the necessity for 
a commander-in-chief. 

Since Massachusetts was most concerned, it was 
proper that John Adams should offer a motion for the 
appointment of a head of the army. The fitness of 
Colonel George Washington, of the Virginia militia, for 
such a position had long been discussed. The appoint- 
ment would be a worthy tribute to Virginia, which was 
so nobly supporting Massachusetts. Washington liad 
come to the second Congress wearing his colonel's uni- 
form, and had been escorted into Philadelphia by five 
hundred officers and gentlemen on horseback, and by 
riflemen and infantry, with bands of music. When Adams 
in his speech referred to "a gentleman from Virginia" 
as a suitable appointment if the motion should pass, 
Washington who was sitting near the door "from his 
usual modesty, darted into the library-room." Yet .'^o 
strong was the sectional feeling that the election had to 
be postponed until a majority could be secured liy prix'atc 
conference. The statement of John Adams that Presi- 
dent Hancock, the former colonel of the Boston Cadets, 
desired the position and showed in his countenance 



JOHN ADAMS III 

"mortification and resentment," is not supported by 
other testimony.^ 

There was no hesitation on the part of Congress 
after the appointment of Washington and the battle of 
Bunker Hill. They established a navy, issued paper 
money, organized rudimentary courts, sent Silas Deane 
to secure aid from France, authorized the colonies to 
set up state governments, besides many other high acts 
of sovereignty — all of which the colonies or states had 
to accept in the hour of necessity. 

Public sentiment began to turn rapidly toward inde- 
pendence. The petition to the king, sent over after the 
battle of Bunker Hill, breathing such sentiment for rec- 
onciliation that the petitioners called it their " olive 
branch," brought from the king a proclamation that the 
colonies were in a state of rebellion. John Adams 
declared he expected no other results ; but it broke the 
conservatives.^ Some went in with the radicals ; others 
cast their lot with the Tories, as those who favored 
yielding to Parliament and the king were called. 

John Jay afterward declared that he never heard 
independence wished for until after the rejection of the 
second petition. Washington, who is sometimes said 
never to have made a pun, wrote from the head of the 
army, " A few more such flaming arguments as were 
exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk '"^ added to the sound 

^ This subject is treated in Sparks's " Washington." \'ol. III., p. 479. 
Also in Curtis's " History of the Constitution," new edition. Vol. I., p. 27. 

2 Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, was allowed to draw up the petition, and 
it was passed out of consideration for him and other conservative members. 
Harrison declared that it contained but one word of which he approved 
— " Congress." 

■^ Falmouth, now Purlland, Maine, and N'urfolk, Virginia, were liurned 
by the British. This action, together with the employment of the Hessian 



112 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/0 IV 

doctrine and unanswerable arguments contained in the 
pamphlet ' Common Sense,' will not leave numbers at a 
loss to decide on the propriety of a separation." The 
pen of Thomas Paine, enlisted in the cause by Franklin 




Jolm Adams 1 r.iiikliii Sherman 

Jefferson K. R. Livingston 

The CciMMITlKK <iN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 1 

in England, was putting out " Common Sense " in weekly 
chapters, undoubtedly acting upon the minds of the mass 
of people by its simple pleadings for independence. 
The Scotch in Mecklenburg county. North Carolina, 

mercenaries, did much to alienate the people of the colonies from the 
mother country. 

^ From an old engravin_<j in the Public Library, Pontiac, Illinois. 



JOHN ADAMS 1 1 3 

had argued that they were absolved from allegiance by 
the action of the king and Parliament. Mrs. John 
Adams, reading Rollin's "Ancient History" to her little 
son John Quincy, and acting as "farm woman" in the 
absence of her husband in Congress, wrote to him : " Let 
us separate. Let us renounce them and instead of sup- 
plication as formerly, let us beseech the Almighty to blast 
their counsels and bring to naught all their devices." 
And John Adams worked incessantly to that end. 
When Dickinson, Jay, and Duane tried to show the 
folly of voting themselves independent before securing 
aid from some foreign power, Adams at once replied that 
no foreign power would make alliance with the revolt- 
ing colonies of Great Britain, but would do so with an 
independent people. 

The efforts of John Adams for independence were so 
obnoxious to niany that he declared himself " avoided, 
like a man infected with leprosy. I walked the streets 
of Philadelphia in solitude, borne down by the weight of 
care and unpopularity." Dr. Rush testified to having 
seen him walk the streets alone, an object of nearly uni- 
versal scorn and detestation. Adams was keen enough 
to see that the advice to the various colonies ^ to set up 
governments of their own was in effect independence. 
But the multitude waited for the overt act. 

Virginia joined hands with Massachusetts as usual. 
June 7, Richard Henry Lee moved " certain resolu- 
tions concerning independency," and the first of these, 
" that these colonies are and of right ought to be free 
and independent states," was postponed to July i. But, 
as the minutes say, " in the meanwhile, that no time 

1 Passed May 15, 1776. 
I 



114 THE MEN WHO AL4DE THE NATION 

be lost, in case the Congress agree thereto, that a com- 
mittee be appointed to prepare a declaration." It was 
quite common in Congress to issue a declaration to 
justify an action or to set forth rights. 

This committee, like others, was chosen by ballot, and 
it was found that Thomas Jefferson had the highest 
number of votes. He was, it was said, the second 
youngest member, but had already gained a reputation 
as a writer in the Congress, where, at that time, most 
talent seemed to lie in speaking. He had been active 
in all the early movements of Virginia but had not come 
into Congress until after the battle of Bunker Hill. 
During his first year in Congress he had not uttered 
three sentences together, according to John Adams. It 
is questionable whether he appreciated fully the fame 
which the future would place upon the words he wrote 
in the second story of his boarding house. ^ It was but 
one of many "declarations," a simple statement of the 
grievances of the colonies. It was no more original than 
was Magna Charta. The indictment against the king 
was but a " history of repeated injuries and usurpations " 
as the colonists had from time to time written it in 
their resolutions and political writings. Many parts of 
the Declaration can be found word for word elsewhere. 
Hence the rumor which probably will never die out that 
Thomas Paine or John Adams or Benjamin Franklin 
was the author of the Declaration. ^ 

' Jefferson was at this time lodging with one Graf, a bricklayer, 
recently married, who lived in a three-story brick dwelling on Market 
street. Jefferson occupied the second story, taking his meals at Smith's. 
The Philadelphians have marked the site \\ith a tablet, as they have done 
in the case of other historic points in their city. 

- Some of this controversy should be quietcfi by the co])y of the 




..^^ 



a^, *•■/.../; v-}i. 









.iL 



. y tCj i-ihj. 






-J J,»*».-r^T..»^, (^'-■'j l^'-l/^'' ■•■'-^'^''' 



'..o4i ^- 







ti^.^^-. L 







J/^ 


















^VA 







Jeffersi)N's Draft uf thk Dkclaration of Inufi'f.ndence 



Il6 THE MEN WHO AEIDE THE NAT/ UN 

The passing of the Declaration was unimportant ; a 
greater contest had centred about the motion for inde- 
pendence. It was one of the most bitter poHtical fights 
in the history of America. States were divided. Dele- 
gates were recalled and new ones chosen in their stead. 
Caesar Rodney made a wild ride from Delaware to Phil- 
adelphia to cast a deciding vote for his state divided 
on this great question. On July 2, the motion was 
passed, and on the 4th the Declaration was adopted. 
Yet neither created the enthusiasm and excitement which 
tradition has attributed to those two days. 

The Pennsylvania Packet of July 2 printed in two 
lines with many capital letters the news that the colonies 
had that day declared themselves free and independent. 
On Saturday the 6th, the same paper printed the Dec- 
laration in full — the first appearance of the document 
in a newspaper. Possibly from the same type was 
printed the "broadside" or single sheet distributed 
throughout the continent and read at the head of the 
army. Upon notice given by the Philadelphia Com- 
mittee of Inspection, "a vast concourse" of people as- 
sembled in the State House yard (Square) on Monday 
following at high noon to listen to the reading of the 
Declaration by John Nixon. As he stood upon the 
temporary platform which had been erected for observ- 
ing the transit of Venus, the crowd heard him with " three 

Declaration in Jefferson's own handwriting, discovered among his papers. 
It was the first draft, and sliows not only the corrections made by the other 
memijers of the committee, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and R. R. 
Livingston, but also the many alterations made by the Congress in com- 
mittee of the whole. It is preserved in the Department of State, Wash- 
ington. The first page is reproduced herewith. John Adams gives credi/ 
to Jefferson. See Adams's " Works," Vol. II., p. 511. 



JOHN ADAMS I17 

repeated huzzas." The king's arms were then taken down 
from the court room in the State House and placed on 
a pile of burning casks. At five o'clock the Declaration 
was read to each of the five battahons on the Commons. 
That night there were bonfires, ringing of bells, and 
other great demonstrations of joy upon the unanimity 
and agreement of the Declaration.^ Similar demonstra- 
tions occurred in Boston, and the Declaration was read 
from many pulpits. In the southern colonies, people 
assembled in various places to attend the reading. 

But graver duties faced Congress and the people 
than huzzaing and rejoicing. The form of a Union 
had been created ; it had still to win its right to exist- 
ence. An invading enemy had to be driven off. The 
infantile resources of a new country were yet to demon- 
strate that they could endure the exhausting demands 
of a war. Above all, the young republic had to demon- 
strate that it could form a new plan of government 
which should effectively replace the old, serving equally 
well in time of war and in time of peace. But John 
Adams, transported by the end he had so long worked 
for, wrote to Mrs. Adams : 

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable 
epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it 
will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great 
anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the 
day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. 
It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, 
games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one 

1 Condensed from the " Diary of Christopher Marshall," a retired drug- 
gist of Philadelphia. Many editions of this invaluable journal have been 
printed. 



Il8 THK MEN II J JO MADE 111 E XATlON 

end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for- 
evermore. 

" You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but 1 am 
not. 1 am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that 
it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and 
defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see 
the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end 
is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will 
triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue 
it, which I trust in God we shall not." ' 

^ "The Works of John Adams," \'ol. IX., p. 420. " Familiar Letters." 
etc., p. 193. This letter is frequently misquoted, as it was first printed, refer- 
ring to the fourth day of July. General custom, however, has come to 
celebrate that day instead of the day of passing the resolution of Inde- 
pendence. 



CHAPTER IV 

ROBERT MORRIS, THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION 

'•The contest we were engaged in appeared to me in the first in- 
stance just and necessary ; therefore I took an active part in it. As 
it became dangerous. I tliought it the more glorious and was stimu- 
lated to the greatest exertions in my power when the affairs of 
America were at their darkest." 

— Robert Morris to his Enemies. 1789. 

When the Congress adopted the army about Boston 
and undertook to carry on the war, it had no treasury, 
no mint, no mines, and no cash save that whicli had 
not been drained into England's purse by the laws of 
trade. It was impossible to determine the amount of 
money in the colonies. John Adams says they found 
only a few thousands in the several treasuries since 
the debt of the last French war had just been paid. 
Hamilton thought they had about thirty millions, of 
which only eight millions were specie. Noah Webster 
supposed that the specie amounted to ten millions. The 
paper money, issued by the various colonies, could be 
counted of little value. Their coast would soon be 
blockaded ; their foreign trade would be cut off ; and 
their home industries would be interrupted by the 
invading enemy. They turned to the easiest expedient 
— the printing of paper bills of credit or promises to 
pay in the future the sums called for. 

119 



120 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



The week following the battle of Bunker Hill, Con- 
gress began its financial history by authorizing the 
printing of bills representing two milHon Spanish milled 
dollars, in denominations ranging from a one-dollar to 
a twenty-dollar bill. It was apportioned for redemption 
among the twelve colonies represented according to a 
rough estimate of the number of inhabitants in each. 
To Virg-inia was assigned the most and to Delaware 







% 



^ (-' w o e jt;^>> o »o d -■ 

/J ^^ A 








Front and Back or Cuntinenial Monkv 



the least. Each colony must begin to redeem its share 
and to pay the coin called for at the end of four years. 
Then in three more annual payments the paper money 
was all to be called in. When redeemed, each bill was 
to be cut through the middle with a circular punch an 
inch in diameter, and when returned to Congress to be 
publicly burned. 

The money was so easily procured and the demands 
upon the treasury for war contingencies so urgent that 



ROBERT MORRIS 1-2 1 

within five months three milHons more were issued. 
At no period in American history is there a better 
illustration of the most pernicious feature of paper 
money. It is so easy to make that satiety is never 
reached. Of course, Congress found more demands, 
and the necessary votes were passed and the printing 
presses kept in motion until they had put forth promises 
to pay two hundred millions of dollars. 

The method of redeeming its share of the money was 
left to each colony, and it was presumed that this would 
be done by local taxation. But the word " ta.x " was 
just as odious as it ever had been. Indeed the colonists 
were fighting a war to keep the Parliament from taxing 
them. ^ Many of the less informed among the people 
really believed that a tax-gatherer would never be seen 
again in America. Benjamin Franklin and others 
begged Congress to stop the presses and get permis- 
sion from their constituents to tax them. In one of 
the debates, Pelatiah Webster^ says that a member 
of Congress rose and said, " Do you think, Gentlemen, 
that I would consent to load my constituents with taxes 

1 A broadside, issued in Philadelphia, said, " (/ursed be ihe Congress- 
man or men who dare tax the free men of North America." A stanza 
went the rounds after the end of the war : 

" The land was doubly lax'd, we thought, 

To carry on the war; 

Now war is to a period brought, 

Still more the taxes are. 

Strange conduct this, all must allow — 

Hush ! let your murmurs cease; 

You pay the double taxes now 

To carry on the peace." 
■^ Webster was a Philadelphia merchant and essay v\riter on political 
and economic subjects. His collected essays were published under the 
title " Political Essays on the Nature and Operation of Money, etc." 



122 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

when we can send to our printer and get a wagon-load 
of money, one quire of which will pay for the whole ? " 

The demands from the army were urgent. Reenlist- 
ments could be secured only by bounties. A deputy 
paymaster in New Jersey complained that he led " a 
Doggs life " in camp without money. ^ Sometimes in 
an urgency the paper money was sent out in boxes 
which rubbed top and bottom sheets, entailing loss and 
confusion. Bills of large denomination were at times 
packed in the middle of reams of a smaller value b\' 
mistake. The clerks employed to supplement the com- 
mittee in signing the bills, although paid by the hun- 
dred, could not keep up with the printing presses nor 
with the demands. 

The redemption was to begin in 1779, but before that 
date the money began to fall of its own weight. Jef- 
ferson thought that even gold or silver would have 
fallen if issued in such quantities.^ Public confidence 
was lost because no state had taken effective steps to 
redeem its share, and the portions of some states were 
never even signed. In the beginning of 1780, it required 
twenty dollars in paper to equal a dollar in specie. 
Congress again gave assurance that it would all be 
eventually redeemed. Six months later it fell to forty 
to one. Congress now repudiated its own promises 
by calling in the old bills and giving new ones at 
the rate of one new dollar for forty old ones. But it 
would still be a paper dollar, and little came in. Instead, 
it went down to seventy-five to one and by the opening 

1 Manuscript letter in the " Peters Papers," Pennsylvania Historical 
Society Museum. 

2 In his "Works" (II. A. Washington, Kd.), ^'>Jl• IX-> ?• 248. 



ROBERT MORRIS I 23 

of 1 78 1 to six hundred and in the rural districts to 
sixteen hundred to one. ^ 

As soon as hard money came into extra demand, 
people began to hoard it. As was truly said the cam- 
paigns of 1778 were fought on less than a wheelbarrow 
load of hard money. From time to time, Congress was 
accustomed to send demands to the states for their re- 
spective quotas or shares of the public expense. But 
when a state was invaded by the enemy it could not 
secure the money, and when it was in no danger, it felt 
no urgency in heeding the call. In vain Congress 
begged that they contribute corn, flour, rum, hay, beef, 
pork, or grain to the needy army. At length in des- 
peration a law was passed which urged states to author- 
ize the seizure of supplies, certificates being issued for 
future payment. 

Loan offices were opened and the patriotism of the 
people appealed to, but few had any money to lend the 
government, and those who had regarded such an 
investment as a very bad one. Lottery books were 
opened and promises of great fortunes were held out 
by investing in L^nited States lottery tickets.^ 

' The coiittmpt into which the Continental money fell is shown in the 
saying, "Not worth a Continental." In a circular issued by the treasurer 
of the United States in 1898, it is said that ' what is known as ' Continental 
Currency' was never redeemable by the United States." In Hamilton's 
funding scheme, it was received as subscriptions to a loan at the rate of 
one hundred paper dollars for one dollar in specie. No doubt the exten- 
sive counterfeiting, which rendered uncertain the authenticity of any exist- 
ing Continental money, militated against its redemption, as well the act of 
July 9, 1798, which barred these old claims. 

- Three lotteries were ordered by the national government. The first 
drawing took place at College Hall, Philadelphia, August 11, 1777. In 
order to realize the entire sum of the sale of tickets, the winners of the 
larger prizes were given due bills on Congress, payable in five years. 



124 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATIOX 



Prominent on the committees in these different finan- 
cial expedients of Congress was the name of " Rob' 
Morris." He had- been brought from England to 
America when but six years of age and while yet a 
lad was placed in the importing house of Willing & 
Co., in mercantile Philadelphia. Here he showed such 




Loi I'KRV I>()l)K OF IHK C.'oMI.NEN TAl, CoMiKESS ^ 



ability that at twenty-one he became partner with his 
employer's son. ) The firm of Willing & Morris trans- 
acted business for upwards of forty years and was 
known far and wide in the trading world. Equal for- 
tune smiled on Morris when he married Mary White, 
whose brother had entered the ministry of the Estab- 
lished church and later became the Episcopal bishop of 
Pennsylvania. 

* In the Museum of Uie Library of Congress, Wasliington. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 25 

Being bound to the mother country by birth, it would 
be only natural that Morris should choose the side of 
the king. His large business interests also allied him 
with law and order rather than rebellion. Yet his firm 
adopted the non-importation agreement of Philadelphia 
at the time of the Stamp Act troubles, and Morris was 
on the committee which compelled the stamp agent, 
Hughes, to resign. When a patriot's house in Mary- 
land was burned, and the Sons of Liberty undertook 
to rebuild it, Robert Morris was one of the largest 
contributors. However, the violent destruction of the 
tea in Boston could not favorably impress a merchant, 
and during the meeting of the first Continental Congress 
in Philadelphia, Morris seems to have taken no part 
in the entertainment of the visitors. 

The 19th of April turned the scale. It is said 
that Robert Morris was presiding at a banquet of the 
St. George society, composed of English-born resi- 
dents of Philadelphia, when the news of the action of 
the king's troops reached him, and that he at once allied 
himself with the resisting patriots. The accession of 
such a wealthy and influential man to the cause was 
hailed with delight, and he was soon on the Committee 
of Safety. He was charged with procuring powder 
and arms, with importing medicines, and was always 
the banker for the committee, frequently advancing 
the necessary money. Pennsylvania loaded a ship be- 
longing to Willing & Morris with home products and 
sent it to the West Indies to procure arms and am- 
munition on exchange. Charles Lee wrote to him 
from the camp at Cambridge : " I am very happy (as 
wc all must be) that the Philadelphia affairs arc in 



126 THE MEiV WHO MADE THE NATION 

hands like yours. I wish to God the N. York were in 
the same." ^ 

Morris was chosen a delegate to the Continental 
Congress in November, 1775, but when John Adams 
began to agitate independence, he allied himself with 
Dickinson, Henry Laurens, William Livingston, and 
the conservatives. On the prehminary vote for inde- 
pendence, Morris voted nay, and when the final vote 
was taken, July 2, he was absent, either from choice 
or on business. The sentiment of Pennsylvania for 
independence was not strong, and it is not surprising 
that Morris was soon after reelected to the Congress. 
He justified his acceptance in a letter to Reed : " I 
think that the individual who declines the service of his 
country because its councils are not conformable to his 
ideas makes but a bad subject ; a good one will follow 
if he cannot lead." '^ 

Willing, the partner of Morris, had also been a mem- 
ber of Congress from Philadelphia, and soon gossip 
arose about the employment of the firm's ships in 
Continental service. It was said that on one powder 
contract the firm would net ^^ 12,000. IHiphalet Dyer, 
of Connecticut, declared that there were not ten men 
in his state worth as much as would be made clear by 
this firm. Nevertheless, John Adams said of Morris : 
" He has a masterly understanding, an open temper 
and an honest heart. . . . He has va.st designs in the 
mercantile way, and no doubt pursues mercantile ends, 
which are always gain ; but he is an excellent member of 

' " Lee Papers," New York Historical Society Collection, Vol. IV., 1S71. 
■■2 From a manuscript letter in the cullection of the Peiiiisslvania ITisturi- 
cal Society. 



ROBERT MORRIS 12/ 

our body." A greater criticism awaited Morris because 
of his support of the first American agent to France. 

When it was rumored throughout the country that 
Congress would apply to France and Spain for help 
against England, some thought the members " would be 
torn to pieces like De Witt." Those countries were 
hereditary enemies of the English colonies. But the 
impossibility of sustaining the war against England and 
her mercenaries soon became manifest to the most 
optimistic. France was smarting under her recent losses 
in America, and overtures first came from her. M. de 
Bonvouloir, an agent of Vergennes, French minister of 
state, although posing as an unofficial visitor, was in 
Philadelphia in 1775, eagerly courted by the Secret Com- 
mittee. They " met at an appointed spot after dark, 
each of them going to it by a different road," as he 
reported to his master. Bonvouloir's presence in Phila- 
delphia excited some curiosity, but no one knew him as 
more than " a lame, elderly gentleman of a dignified 
and military bearing." He was careful to promise 
nothing to the Americans, but so dark did the future 
appear that they decided to send an agent to France. 

Silas Deane, of Connecticut, whether because of his 
business ability, his showy style of living, or his mercan- 
tile experience, was chosen. John Adams says that the 
appointment was solicited by Deane himself, who had 
failed of reelection to the third session of Congress, but 
remained in Philadelphia. According to his own testi- 
mony, Deane could " read and understand the French 
language tolerably well, though I am unable to write 
it." In July, 1776, he reached the magnificent French 
court, and soon showed himself a rough but honest 



128 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

apprentice at the trade of diplomacy. The keen Beau- 
marchais, a speculator and favorite of the F'rench king, 
kept Deane in suspense with suggestions of aid ; the 
vessels in which products were shipped to support him, 
were seized by British privateers ; he was informed 
repeatedly by the Secret Committee of the pressing 
need of supplies, and besieged by a horde of soldiers 
of fortune and adventurers who wanted to enlist in the 
cause of Ics insuTgcnts. He once made the unfortunate 
suggestion that Washington be supplanted by the Due 
de Broglie. He sent over Conway, who headed the 
"cabal" against Washington, and an engineer, whose 
insolent demands caused a general contempt for French 
officers which time alone removed. But he also com- 
missioned Baron de Kalb and the ]\Iarquis de Lafayette 
with their "train" of eleven officers. He asked a 
major-generalship for the marquis because of " his high 
birth, his alliances, the great dignities which his family 
hold at this court, his considerable estates in this realm, 
his personal merit, his reputation, his disinterestedness, 
and above all, his zeal for the liberty of our provinces." 
" Had I ten ships," he writes to the Secret Committee, 
" I could fill them all with passengers for America." ^ 

Deanc's fitness for influencing the French court may 
be imagined from a reiterated request for certain Ameri- 
can aids to diplomacy. " She," the queen, " lov^es riding 
on horseback. Could you send me a narrowhegansett 
horse or two ; the present might be money exceedingly 
well laid out. Rittenhouse's orrery, or Arnold's col- 
lection of insects, a phaeton of American make and a 

1 The transactions of Deane may be studied in Wharton's " Diplomatic 
Correspondence of the American Revolution." 



ROBERT MORRIS 



129 



pair of bay horses, a few barrels of apples, of walnuts, 
of butternuts, etc., would be great curiosities here, 
where everything American is gazed at, and where the 
American contest engages the attention of all ages, 
ranks, and sexes." 

In the Hotel de Hollande, the unoccupied residence 
of the Dutch minister in Paris, suddenly appeared the 
office of a firm bearing the romantic name of Roderique 
Hortalez et Cie., the head of which was said to be a 
Spanish banker engaged in the American trade. Deane 
knew that " Hortalez " was Beaumarchais, the king's 
confidant, who was given three million francs as a don 
gratitit for the Americans. In return they were to ship 
him tobacco and rice. This secrecy was necessary in 
order to avoid complications with England. One of 
these million francs disappeared and became a source 
of contention in the claim of the Beaumarchais heirs 
against the United States. Morris was drawn into the 
controversy by his support of Deane and by the folly of 
his half-brother and ward, Thomas, for whom he had 
obtained a foreign agency at Nantes. The remaining 
two million francs found their way to the American 
army in the shape of arms and ammunition, but " Hor- 
talez " never received a cargo in return. 

Congress now decided to make a more determined 
effort to get aid from France, and sent over Franklin 
from America and Arthur Lee, Virginia agent at Lon- 
don, to join Deane. Franklin was eminently fitted for 
the position. He had been in France several times, 
could speak French, and was suited by nature to that 
gay court. His seventy years had not affected his good 
spirits, although he suffered from disease. His rccep- 

K 



I30 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

tion in Paris was most gratifying. Having discarded a 
wig for hygienic reasons,^ he replaced it by a fur cap 
which in time showed traces of wear. This was sup- 
posed in Paris to be the Quaker headgear and was 
imitated with great fidelity by the young nobles. They 
also abandoned their swords for Franklin canes, and 
copied the plain and not overneat attire of the "colo- 
nial Quaker." Franklin dolls appeared, by which the 
philosopher was " i-doll-ized," as he wrote to his daughter 
Sally. He also said that he durst not do anything that 
would oblige him to run away, since his phiz would 
discover him wherever he should venture to show it.^ 
Deane showed no jealousy, but wrote home : '* Never 
did I enjoy greater satisfaction than in being the spec- 
tator of the public honors often paid him. . . . When 
he attended the operas and plays, similar honors were 
paid him, and I confess I felt a joy and jH'ide which 
was pure and honest, though not disinterested, for 
I considered it an honor to be an American and his 
acquaintance." 

Franklin's residence at Passy, a suburb of Paris, 
loaned to him by a friend, was the centre of a delightful 
coterie. Near at hand was the home of Madame Hel- 
vetius, to whom Franklin wrote his burlesque proposal 
of marriage, but whose manners shocked Mrs. John 



' In his " Works," Vol. III., p. 75, John .\(lams tells a story of Franklin 
and himself occupying the same room in an inn in midwinter. 1 he 
philosopher insisted upon opening the window, and began a calculation 
of the length of time it would recpiire to exhaust the air in the room, during 
which .Adams fell asleep. 

- A collection of over one hundred and lifty portraits and medallions 
of I'Vanklin has been jilaced in the Metropolitan .\rt Museum, New York 
City, many of them dating from his residence in France at this time. 



ROBERT MORRIS 



131 



Adams. ^ Indeed, the whole Hfe of FrankHn was a 
source of amazement to John Adams when he was sent 
over as an additional . 



agent. He found 
Franklin with seven 
servants and a chore- 
woman and spend- 
ing $13,000 a year 
while a solicitor of 
aid for the needy 
Americans. 

The king received 
Franklin in his bed- 
chamber, and the 
queen granted him : 
a presentation at her 
gaming table. But 
the gates of the pal- 
ace remained closed 
to him as a rep- 
resentative of the 
United States. Only 
the peace proposals 
of Lord North in 
the Parliament and 



'' === 



■r 



"1 



'SHORT APPEAL 

10 THE 
PEOPLE ol GKEA r-ilR! TAlNj 



PRFsKNT \V.\K V. IT- ' 



,.t.) 



l\ 



the capture of Burgoyne and his men in America per- 
suaded the king that the Americans had a good showing 
of success. Beaumarchais drove so furiously to advise 
the king to make a treaty that he was thrown from his 
carriage and his arm dislocated. Dickinson's predic- 

^ "Letters of Mrs. John Adams," p. 252. P'ranklin's proposal may be 
found in Sparks's "Franklin," Vol. II., p. 204. 



132 THE ME.V irHO MADE THE NATION 

tion that foreign aid would be gained by victories in the 
field instead of a Declaration of Independence was 
verified. Nothing came of North's proposition in Eng- 
land save additional pamphlets on the necessity of con- 
tinuing the war against the rebellious colonies. 

The need of money lay at the bottom of nearly all 
the difficulties of carrying on the war and consumed 
many of the precious hours of Congress. That body 
must not be criticised too severely for its delinquencies, 
nor must men be censured too much for refusing to 
serve as delegates and preferring the more honorable 
and less dangerous duty of serving the state govern- 
ments. Only by reading the minutes ^ can one appre- 
ciate the thousand trifling details demanding the attention 
of Congress. State prejudices and influences delayed 
the appointment of army officers. Enlistments were 
made for such brief times that the army was usually 
not dependable. Hard money was paid as bounty to 
encourage enlistment, but the recruits with coin in their 
pockets created mutinies in the camps where the other 
soldiers had been paid in "rag money." Delegations 
of begging Indians with their tedious powwows must 
be tolerated lest they join the enemy. All kinds of 
obstructions and vaisscaitx de frise for the Delaware were 
examined and considered when it was rumored that 
Howe would drive the " rebels" from their capital. 

In December, 1776, came the first rumor of Howe's 
approach, and a panic seized upon Congress, during 
which it fled precipitately from Philadelphia to Balti- 
more. The patriots in the city shared the alarm of 

^ The "Journals of Congress," as the Continental Congress records 
were called, are to be found in many libraries. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 33 

Congress. *' Drums beat ; a martial appearance ; the 
shops shut. . . . Our people then began to pack up 
some things, wearing and bedding, to send to the 
place. . . . Numbers of families loading wagons with 
their furniture, &c. taking them out of town. . . . 
Went with a number of deeds to son Christopher's ; 
put them into his iron chest," wrote Christopher Mar- 
shall in his diary. 

This headlong flight of Congress, especially as Howe 
failed to come, gave opportunity for the critics. One of 
them wrote to Morris : " For God's sake why did you 
remove from Philadelphia.'' You have given an invita- 
tion to the enemy ; you have discovered a timidity that 
encourages an enemy and discourages our friends." 
Morris had not fled with the other members. Sending 
his family to a step-sister of Mrs. Morris near Baltimore, 
he quietly assumed the management of public affairs in 
Philadelphia. As soon as Congress was safely assem- 
bled at Baltimore, it authorized him and two others to 
act in Philadelphia in its absence. Morris sent almost 
daily reports, which were highly approved. President 
Hancock wrote to him : " Without the least appearance 
of Flattery I can assure you your whole conduct since 
our Flight is highly approved, & happy I am that you 
Remain'd ; many agreeable consequences have resulted 
from it, and your continu'd exertions will be productive 
of great good, I must therefore beg you will continue 
as long as you can tho' I sincerely wish you a happy 
sight of good Mrs. Morris, but I fear your departure 
from Philad" might occasion relaxation that would 
be prejudical. I know however you will put things in 
a proper way, indeed all depends on you, and you have 



134 ^^" yJ/£"A^ IVHO MADE THE NATION- 

my hearty thanks for your unremitting Labours, the 
Publick are much indebted to you, and I hope to see 
the day when those pubHck acknowledgments shall be 
made you." ^ 

To Franklin and the other commissioners in France, 
Morris describes the situation in Philadelphia: "This 
city was for ten days the greatest scene of distress that 
you can conceive ; everybody but Quakers were remov- 
ing their families and effects, and now it looks dismal 
and melancholy. The Quakers and their families pretty 
generally remain ; the other inhabitants are principally 
sick soldiers. . . . You may be sure I have my full 
share of trouble on this occasion, but having got my 
family and books removed to a place of safety my 
mind is more at ease, and my time is given up to the 
public, although I have many thousand pounds' worth 
of effects here without any prospect of saving them."^ 

His days were employed in removing the salt out of 
the city to prevent it falling into the hands of the 
enemy, sending the public ships away from the mouth 
of Delaware bay, and receiving and forwarding public 
supplies. He borrowed $10,000 as he said for the 
marine committee, although it was hinted the money 
had been used to get the Congress out of town. He 
was ordered to sencl hard money to General Lee, now 
a prisoner. Lafayette begged him to send him even 
a part of the sum he originally asked. 

In the early morning of the day which ushered in the 
year 1777, Morris received a letter from General Wash- 

1 "Thomson Papers," New York Historical Society Collections, 1878, 
\^,l. XL, p. 413. 

2 Wharton's "Diplomatic Correspondence," Vol. II., p. 234. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 35 

ington, in the field. The battle of Trenton had just 
been won, but the fruits might be lost if the Connecti- 
cut troops, whose time expired at the end of the year, 
went home. Washington was promising them a bounty 
of ten dollars each if they would reenlist and was 
depending on Morris for the money. The latter re- 
plied : " I had long since parted with very considerable 
sums of hard money to Congress ; and therefore must 
collect from others, and, as matters now stand, it is 
no easy thing. I mean to borrow silver and promise 
payment in gold, and will then collect the gold in the 
best manner I can."^ Having sent the General ^150 
two days before for the secret service, this $50,000 
was with difficulty procured. It probably contributed 
to the battle of Princeton.^ 

In March, Congress ventured to return to Philadel- 
phia from Baltimore, but precaution was taken to have 
the records in boxes ready for flight if Howe should 
come. One night in September, Colonel Alexander 
Hamilton, a student in King's College who had become 
an aide on Washington's staff, gave the alarm at the 
doors of the lodgings occupied by the members, inform- 
ing them that they " had not a moment to lose." They 
arose, dressed, and scattered in different directions. 
John Adams drove over into New Jersey, and then 
circled about the city and joined the other members a 
week later at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Tories 
in the city said the scene beggared description when 

1 Sparks's "Letters to Washington," Vol. I., p. 315. 

2 It is said that Morris chanced to meet John Morton, a wealthy Quaker, 
and asked to borrow a large sum " for a private purpose." By this finesse 
he secured it, giving his note and his word of honor. 



136 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

" the Congress, all the publick boards, Officers & all the 
Whigs in general left the City at midnight, in the utmost 
consternation.".^ Church bells were taken down, the 
bridge ov^er the Schuylkill torn up, and the signs bearing 
the head of Washington carefully carried away from the 
taverns. Ten days later, Howe entered the rebel capital. 

Morris this time took his family to the "mansion" 
built by the eccentric Baron Stiegel at Manheim, near 
Lancaster. His other country residence. The Hills, 
the scene of his lavish entertainments of Congress, was 
too near Philadelphia to be safe.^ 

Congress returned to Philadelphia in the summer of 
1778, after the evacuation of the city by the British. 
Morris brought back his family and continued his exer- 
tions in raising money and combining public with pri- 
vate business. Lead was m great demand for bullets. 
The committee of Philadelphia had searched the houses 
for lead, bad taken down all the water pipes, and were 
disgusted at finding some of the window weights made 
of iron.^ It is said that Robert Morris gave to the com- 
mittee the lead ballast from a vessel of which he was 
part owner, giving his note for security to the other 
owners. In 1779, he advanced five hundred guineas 
hard money to the United States. In 1 781, he sent to 
Washington the sum which made possible the siege of 
Yorktown and the end of the war. 

1 Pennsylva)iia Magazine of Ilistorv and Biography, Vol. IX., \>. 290. 

2 From Baltimore, Harrison, of \'irginia, had written to Morris: "I 
most sincerely thank you for your kmd wishes to see me again at The 
Hills. I generally appropriate some moments on Sunday to that Place, 
let me be where I will; But in this infernal sink, I scarcely think of 
anything else." "Thomson Papers," Vol. XI., p. 409. 

* See the " Diary of Susan Drinker," p- 41. 



ROBERT MORRIS I 37 

It must be noted that the national government thus 
far was purely revolutionary. Congress had assumed 
control, and the states had to acquiesce. Hence this 
period from 1776 to 1781 is often called the period of 
" Revolutionary " government. The interregnum, as 
has been shown, was due to necessity and not to inten- 
tion. The "certain motions for independency" offered 
by Richard Henry Lee had embraced two points aside 
from independence, viz. " most effectual measures for 
forming foreign alliances" and "a plan for a confedera- 
tion " among the respective colonies. The action was 
illustrative of the Saxon instinct for perpetuating gov- 
ernment. There was to be no interregnum, no chance 
for anarchy to rear its ugly head. " The government 
is dead; long live the government." 

Ten days after independence was voted, the com- 
mittee brought in a draft of twenty " Articles " for the 
governing of the proposed "Confederation." They are 
supposed to be the work of John Dickinson, but there 
were numerous "plans" of union to serve as models. 
Franklin, recalling his plan proposed at Albany twenty- 
one years before, had proposed a form of union in 
Congress a year prior to thfe Declaration, and many 
thought it should have been adopted before indepen- 
dence was declared. 

But if the committee could agree upon a form of gov- 
ernment and report it in such brief time, it was unlikely 
that the differences of interests and opinions in Con- 
gress could be so easily reconciled. From time to time 
for sixteen months in the midst of the most pressing 
questions, these Articles were taken up and debated 
before they were adopted and sent to the several states 



138 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

for unanimous ratification. The points in dispute were 
far from trivial. Washington was constantly calling 
for money. Should the quota to be raised by each 
state be determined by its population .'' Should the 
slaves be counted .'' Congress, according to the pro- 
posed Articles, was to be the sole agency of the Union. 
It was to have executive, legislative, and embryonic 
judicial powers. Representation therein was a momen- 
tous issue. Should small Delaware have equal repre- 
sentation with populous Virginia } The disputes about 
the boundary lines of the states had scarcely abated 
during the war. They would break out afresh when it 
ceased. How could a court be constituted which would 
have jurisdiction over these independent states in set- 
tling such controversies t 

When the Articles, reduced to thirteen, were finally 
submitted to the states, a new territorial question arose 
which delayed their ratification by all the states until 
March, 1781, thus completing almost five years of the 
" Revolutionary government." It was understood that 
in the event of a successful termination of the war, the 
territory of the United States was to extend to the west- 
ern boundary of the former English territories — the 
Mississippi river. Should the land thus acquired, ly- 
ing between the Alleghanies and the river, belong to 
those states which held the shadowy charter claims, or 
should it be held for the common benefit of all the 
states } It was being won by the common blood and 
treasure; it should be held for the common good. This 
was the contention of the small states, cut out by defi- 
nite boundaries from these western claims. Maryland 
held out until the last of the claim-holding states had 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 39 

yielded her western land to the central government, thus 
making the beginnings of the rich inheritance known 
as the "public domain." At high noon on March i, 
1 78 1, the discharge of cannon in the State House yard 
at Philadelphia announced that the " Articles of Con- 
federation and Perpetual Union " between the thirteen 
states had gone into effect, and that a legal government 
existed once more. Although some victories had thus 
far attended the American arms in the field, the lack of 
civic harmony and righteousness was too evident in 
both state and nation to cause much rejoicing. The 
public conscience seemed to have grown hardened during 
the many years of war. 

Robert Morris will be found on record in every public 
assembly to which he belonged as opposed to the meas- 
ures, only too frequently passed, for repudiating debt 
or still further endangering public credit. He tried in 
vain to prevent Pennsylvania joining in the craze of issu- 
ing paper money, which seemed to attack the states, 
thereby injuring not only themselves but the Congress 
as well. Under his suggestion the depreciation of 
Pennsylvania currency was at one time checked. Con- 
gress ^ had long known of his services and ability, and in 
1 78 1 replaced the unfortunate Board of the Treasury 
by Robert Morris, under the title of Financier of the 
United States. He accepted the office with reluctance, 
his friends, although testifying to his abihty in finance, 
assuring him that he could not succeed. The govern- 
ment was now two and a half million dollars in debt, 
besides its paper money which had ceased to circulate. 
His -first step in reform was to dismiss a number of useless 

1 After 1 78 1 known as the "Confederation" Congress. 



140 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

clerks, thus gaining additional unpopularity. For three 
years he struggled with the many financial problems, 
organizing the Bank of North America, to which he 
subscribed $10,000 of his own money, ^ collecting funds 
on his private indorsement to conduct the closing cam- 
paigns of the war, and at last resigned in utter despair. 
His management was at times daring, as when he 
drew upon the American representatives in Europe for 
money. Franklin once wrote in reply from France 
asking if he thought him Gideon, that he must draw 
water for all Israel. Jay, in replying, assured him that 
he had exhausted every bank in Spain save that of 
hope. To add to the difficulties, this borrowed money 
was counterfeited as the paper money had been, and it 
was also trimmed and punched until most of it was 
light weight. The enemy was accused of putting out 
these counterfeits to destroy the hopes of the rebels,^ but 
the Americans themselves countenanced the clipping, 
until a quartermaster in the army, although confessing 
it " a shameful business and an unreasonable hardship 
on a public officer," was compelled to solicit the loan of 
" a pair of good shears, a couple of punches, and a 
leaden anvil " to reduce the foreign money borrowed 
for the United States to the current standard.^ 

1 The workings of this prototype of the later national banks may be 
studied in .Sumner's " Finances and Financier of the Revolution," and in 
BoUes's "Financial History of the United States." 

-See Bolles's "Financial History of the United States," Ch. XL; 
Moore's " Diary of the American Revolution," Vol. L, p. 440; Almon's 
"Remembrancer for 17S0." Counterfeiters were punished by sitlinji; in 
the pillory one hour, by twenty stripes, and payment of the costs of prose- 
cution. Passing counterfeit money was punishable by standing one hour 
in the pillory, iiy twenty stripes, and having one ear cut off. 

3 Quoted in Pickering's "Pickering," Vol. I., p. 3S8. 



ROBERT MORRIS 141 

It is impossible to say how much of the money raised 
by Morris was borrowed or advanced by him personally 
and how much through his agency as a member of the 
various committees or as Financier. In the troublous 
times marked by the flights of Congress, the loss of 
accounts, and the confusion attending the foreign loans, 
his accounts were hopelessly confused, and neither he nor 
any accountant since has been able to put them aright. 
At the close of the war, his name was on paper amount- 
ing to $1,400,000, which he had secured for the service 
of the United States. This he was able to pay by the 
unusual profits attending the importations of his firm. 
Although 140 of their vessels were captured by the 
enemy, prices of imported goods had risen to such 
proportions that one vessel reaching America safely 
from Holland, France, or Spain, would recompense for 
the loss of several. Pins and writing paper rose to 
fabulous prices. Mrs. John Adams was willing to pay 
$15 a thousand for pins, and John Marshall said that 
his sisters used thorns as substitutes. Writing-paper was 
worth $10 a quire. The trimmed margins of newspapers 
and pamphlets attest the scarcity of this commodity. 
Thomas Paine, secretary of a Congressional committee, 
was unable to obtain sufificient paper to write fully to 
Franklin, the agent in France. Other commodities were 
equally unobtainable. A substitute for imported mo- 
lasses was found by grinding cornstalks and boiling 
the liquor. Salt could scarcely be bought at any price, 
and " all the old women and young children [in Phila- 
delphia] are gone down to the Jersey shore to make 
salt. Salt water is boiling all around the coast." Loaf 
sugar rose to fifteen shilhngs the pound. A New 



142 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

York paper announced " No Dry Goods Ship this 
spring." ^ 

Such prices naturally bred a spirit of speculation. 
Morris not only bought up foreign goods, but sent an 
agent through the southern states to buy for cash all 
tobacco and such other products as might be in general 
demand. These movements made him as unpopular as 
any rich man may expect to be in such disorderly times. 
A committee, sent by a public meeting in the State 
House yard, accused him of buying the cargo of a 
French vessel and selling it at exorbitant prices. At 
another time, acting as agent for the commissary of the 
French troops, he paid more than the allowed price for 
flour. He was " waited upon by four or five women with 
sacks under their arms," who demanded a portion of 
the flour, and by a public committee who insisted that 
he should not deliver it to the French troops. 

A study of events of those days convinces one that 
all the dangers of war are not to be encountered on the 
battlefield. The temptation to make personal gain out 
of necessity is hard to resist, although it tends to break 
down the civic honor. Although the actions of Morris did 
not deserve the severe criticism bestowed on him, there 
is no doubt that public morality waned. The president 
of Congress wrote to the governor of Georgia : " Were 
I to unfold to you. Sir, scenes of venality, peculation, 
and fraud which I have discovered, the disclosure would 
astonish you." President Reed, of the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, published a denial of the rumor that he was trad- 

^ According to the report in a Philadelphia newspaper, of an auction 
sale in 1781, a pair of razors brought $29; a pound (jf thread, $87.75; ^ 
pair of shoes, $120; a dozen buttons, %\o; and an iron-bound barrel, $120. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 43 

ing with New York City, held by the British. Morris, 
falling under suspicion of sending goods belonging to his 
firm in Continental vessels, was investigated by a com- 
mittee of Congress, and cleared of the charge. Hewes, 
of North CaroHna, failed of reelection to Congress, 
because he was connected with Morris in shipping goods 
for the Secret Committee. The French minister wrote 
that the members of Congress generally used their 
positions for speculation. 

Public property had not the consideration which was 
given to private property. When the British evacuated 
Philadelphia, they left a bridge which the city counsel 
appraised at £,'Joo. Some comment was caused by its 
private sale to an assemblyman of the state for ^150. 
Undoubtedly the civic conscience was seduced by the 
disposal of the confiscated estates of those known as 
Loyalists or Tories, who had remained on the side of 
the king. The patriots had to encounter not only a 
foreign foe, but, as John Adams estimated them, fully 
one-fourth their own countrymen. These Loyalists were 
generally men of property and influence who refused to 
endanger their reputations, fortunes, and lives by taking 
sides with "rebels." The inherited hatred of social 
classes was partly responsible for the severe treatment 
they received at the hands of the lower class of people. 
Leaders like Washington, Morris, and Franklin, deplored 
this tarring and feathering, pillorying, slicing off ears, 
and destruction of property, but, as in many modern 
"strikes," they were unable to hold the mob in hand. 

There were always to be found such men as the brag- 
gart General Charles Lee, a renegade British officer, 
who tried to incite the people by public addresses to 



144 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



destroy the barracks of the soldiers and to mob Riving- 
ton, a New York printer. He would put down the 







1 Ki..Vl ,Mi' N I o|. 1111. Iwivil.-, 



"small, perverse, drivelling knot of Quakers" in Phila- 
delphia, " kick the Assembly from the seat of represen- 



1 From the hist edition of Trumbull's " McFingal." 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 45 

tation which they so horribly disgrace, and set them to 
making German Town stockings for the army," and seize 
every "Governour, government man, placeman, tory 
and enemy to liberty on the continent, confiscate their 
estates, confine them in some of the inferior towns, and 
allow them only a reasonable pension out of their 
fortunes." ^ 

Under such treatment, the Loyalists fled by thousands 
to England, where they were pensioned, or to Canada, 
where they were given crown land. Others had taken 
refuge in New York, and when it was found that it was 
to be evacuated at the close of the war, advertisements 
appeared in the papers setting forth the advantages of 
the Loyalist settlements in Nova Scotia and adjacent 
parts of Canada. Frequently upon the doors of the 
fine old colonial mansions would be found the derisive 
inscription " Gone to Halifax," and the deserted prop- 
erty fell a prey to neglect or was seized by some chance 
occupant. Provision was made by the states to sell 
this confiscated property, but little was realized from it.^ 

The tribulations of Congress continued. A third 
time they had to fly from Philadelphia ; not because of 
a foreign foe, but through some up-country Pennsylvania 
farmer boys, who had served the term of their enlist- 
ment in the army and demanded their pay. There was 

1 The " Lee Papers," New York Historical Society Collections, Vol. IV., 
1871. 

^ Agents were appointed to sell the abandoned estates, and all persons 
having claims were notified to bring them in. Since the other party was 
absent, there was abuse of this privilege. The states rarely realized the 
full value of the abandoned property. Galloway said that he had left 
an estate in Pennsylvania worth ;^40,ooo. The houses in which Long- 
fellow and Lowell dwelt at Cambridge are familiar specimens of deserted 
Tory houses. 
L 



Li- 
the 
city 
liii- 
ai!- 
h«r 
and 



146 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

no money available, and the terrified members fled to 
Princeton, New Jersey.^ The Congress was even then 
trying to persuade the army to accept certificates for 
their pay, now long in arrears. Washington was attempt- 
ing to stop a proposed agreement among his offlcers 
_..., not to disband the 

/Vppraili-droi.lsiepo.imis, qrmv linl-il thpir 

BENJAMIN TIMBERLAlCn. ^^^ ^"^^^ ^"^^^ 

Aiigiift I. 1787. ^^ p^y ■^^g assured. 

(C^^ C A 5 II given for John Stark had 

Military Certificates, ^one home in 

rnquirc of ihc Printer hereof. _ doubt how he was 

to " support a nu- 
merous offspring which Heaven had been pleased to 
bestow." Congress next went to Annapolis, sitting 
" near a yawning graveyard " for six months ; then they 
adjourned to Trenton, and eventually to New York. 
Such " vagabondizing from one petty village to another," 
as a member put it, was neither pleasant nor profitable. 
Salaries were supposed to be paid by the respective 
states, but members suffered from the dereliction of their 
Assemblies as well as by the depreciation of money. 
Ames managed to get an order on the Massachusetts 
treasury for ;^ioo, but discounted it for ^90 cash. An- 
other member complained that he received less than $100 
for $201 in Philadelphia. A Maryland delegate suggested 
that his state send some flour up to Philadelphia which 
he could dispose of. Madison hinted to Virginia that 
he might be a prisoner for debt if some money were 

1 The failure of the city and the state to protect Congress cost Phila- 
delphia the permanent scat of government. Charles Thomson wrote, "() 
that it could be obliterated from the annals of America and utterly effaced 
from my memory." — Peters' papers (MS.) in Pennsylvania Historical Soci- 
ety Library. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 47 

not forthcoming. He had been " for some time a pen- 
sioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew Broker." ^ 

Under such disadvantages, it is small wonder that 
business in Congress should have been hindered so 
frequently, after the danger of the war had passed, by 
the absence of members. When the long-awaited treaty 
of peace with England, which was signed at Paris by 
Adams, Franklin, and Jay, reached Congress about the 
middle of December, it found but seven states repre- 
sented, two less than the number required by the 
Articles for such a purpose. According to its terms, it 
must be ratified and back in Paris within six months, 
and almost four had already elapsed. Urgent sum- 
monses were sent in all directions, and in one month 
two more states were represented, although the full 
quorum lasted but three days. Washington, anxious to 
return to his neglected plantation, waited four days at 
Annapolis and at last resigned his commission to twenty 
delegates representing six states. 

Congress from time to time begged the states to give 
to it some dependable source of revenue. Between 1781 
and 1786 the states had been asked for more than ten 
million dollars for the expenses of government, but had 
paid less than two and one-half millions. Toward the 
latter part of that period money was coming into Con- 
gress from the states at the rate of four hundred thou- 
sand dollars per annum, while the interest on the 
national debt alone was half a million annually. 

Congress asked to be allowed to levy a duty on all 
goods coming into the country. The request was at 

1 There is a sketch of the services of Haym Salomon in Wolf's " Ameri- 
can Jew," p. 14. 



148 HE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION' 

one time limited to a definite period ; at another time 
to a certain j^er cent. Sometimes all the states save 
one would agree on some concession, but before that 
one state could be brought into line others would with- 
draw the permission. No proposition to mend the 
Articles ever passed all the states, and Congress was 
compelled to continue making requisitions on them for 
money. 

With no adequate treasury and no coercive power, the 
Union was threatened with encroachment from abroad 
and disintegration from within. Spain claimed the right 
to collect duty on every load of grain which the western 
pioneers carried down the Mississippi to a market at 
Spanish New Orleans. There was a doubt whether the 
trans-Alleghanian settlements might not find it desirable 
to secede from the feeble Union and to ally themselves 
with Spain. Although the Revolutionary war had been 
ended and a treaty signed, British troops for several 
years retained possession of forts on the American side 
of the boundary line, withholding the allegiance of the 
Indians and interfering with American trade. There 
was always the fear that the Revolutionary government 
set up in the Green Mountains, generally called Vermont, 
might be led away by the influence of the British on their 
northern side. 

Many began to despair of the experiment of represen- 
tative government in America during this " critical 
period."^ The infant republic scemed'doomed to die in 
its cradle. Everything pointed to a fulfilment of Lord 
North's prediction that the rebelling colonics by internal 

1 John Fiske has fastened this deserved title upon this period in liis 
excellent book hearing that name. 



ROBERT MORRIS 1 49 

disputes would soon be compelled to come back to the 
protecting hand of the mother country. Washington's 
was the arm of faith that upheld all with whom he came 
in contact. From his home at Mount Vernon, whither 
he had retired after saving the military life of the repub- 
lic, he sent letters to his friends in the various states 
begging them to assist in saving the political life of the 




^^ a^^c^^ 9 - /^ 

young nation. With his close friend, Robert Morris, 
Washington no doubt held many conferences upon the 
state of the country when he was the guest of the 
wealthy Morris in Philadelphia, while 'attending the 
meeting of the Cincinnati ^ or at such time as he chanced 

^ The Society of the Cincinnati was organized by the surviving officers 
of the Revolutionary war. 



ISO THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

to see him. A few years later, he sent to Mrs. Morris 
one of the proofs of an engraving by Sergent, with his 
compliments. 

Notwithstanding the poUtical troubles, the commercial 
instinct of Morris saw opportunities for investment in 
the numerous land and canal schemes which were formed, 
many of them through his agency, during the post- 
Revolutionary days. No doubt these speculations and 
the sad end to which they brought him made people 
overlook the service which he had rendered at the very 
beginning of the Union. ^ His foreign birth, his osten- 
tatious manner of living, his wealth, and his unenviable 
official duties conspired to this end. But some will ever 
apply to Robert Morris the lament of the Preacher who 
had seen " a little city with few men in it deHvered by a 
poor wise man, yet no man remembered that same poor 
man." 

1 In the speculating mania following Hamilton's assumption measures, 
Morris became the head of numerous enterprises. He bought nearly half 
of the lots in the future capital of Washington. In 1798 the crash came. 
Morris was unable to meet his obligations and, according to the law of the 
time, fell into Prune-street prison, Philadelphia, where he lay almost three 
years until released by the passing of a law in Pennsylvania prohibiting 
imprisonment for debt. He lived but four years after his release. His 
new mansion, nicknamed "■ Morris's Folly," was torn down before it was 
completed. 



CHAPTER V 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE ADVOCATE OF STRONGER 
GOVERNMENT 

. . . And thou 
Our city's boast, to whom so much we owe. 
In whom, the last and youngest of the three, 
No common phase of excellence we see, 
In every grateful heart thou hast a place, 
Nor time nor circumstance can e"er erase ! 

Discord shall cease and perfect Union reign 
And all confess that sweetly powerful chain 
The Fed'' ral System, which at once unites. 
The Thirteen States and all the People's rights. 

— To Hamilton. 1788.1 

That the strength of the new repubhc was to lie largely 
along commercial lines was indicated by the fact that the 
commercial relations between the states were the first to 
bring friction, the most obstinate to adjust, and the ones 
which finally brought a correction of the whole. Accord- 
ing to the Articles of Confederation, each state had 
control of its own commerce. Soon Massachusetts was 
complaining that Connecticut levied a higher duty on 
Massachusetts goods than she did on foreign goods com- 
ing within her borders. Connecticut replied that she had 
no large ports attractive to foreign vessels and must get 

1 From an Ode celeljraling in New York the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion of the United Slates. 

151 



152 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

a revenue from goods imported through her neighbors. 
New Jersey was pictured as bleeding at both stumps, 
since the duty on the foreign goods consumed by her 
was collected in the ports of New York and Pennsylva- 
nia on each side of her. Great Britain refused to allow 
American vessels to trade with her West Indies. She 
had recognized the political independence of her former 
colonies, but still held them in commercial bondage. 
Madison declared that " our trade was never more com- 
pletely monopolized by Great Britain when it was under 
the direction of the British Parliament than it is at this 
moment." Hamilton said that when Massachusetts, New 
York, and Pennsylvania tried to retaliate upon British 
vessels, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware declared 
their ports free in order to attract the forbidden trade. ^ 

The commercial difficulties about New York finally 
grew into a comic warfare. An item from that city 
in a Virginia newspaper said : " The Assembly of New 
Jersey have laid a tax of ^30 per month upon the Light- 
House on Sandy-Hook in that state. This land being 
40 acres, was formerly purchased from the proprietor, 
Mr. Hartshorn, by the corporation of New York for the 
purpose of maintaining a Light-House, public inn, and 
a kitchen garden thereon. This tax, it is said, has been 
imposed to counteract the severity of the law in New 
York, which enacts that every wood-boat and shallop 
from New Jersey, of more than 12 tons, shall be reg- 
ularly entered and cleared out at the custom-house in the 

• The quotations from Hamilton in this chapter are to be found in 
Lodge's "Complete Works of Alexander Hamilton," in nine volumes. 
Those from Madison are from his " Letters and Other Writings," in four 
volumes. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



153 



same manner as if they had arrived from any foreign 
port." ^ Shippers of New Jersey and Connecticut bound 
themselves by agreement under {penalty of £,^0 not to 
ship anything into New York or furnish any New York 
craft with any kind of lading for one year unless the 
odious overcharge of 
dockage was removed 
as well as the restric- 
tions which New York 
had placed upon the 
cartage of firewood. 

From many such 
instances Madison 
thought that " most of 
our political evils may 
be traced up to our 
commercial ones." His 
own state of Virginia 
showed wisdom by co- 
operating with her 
neighbor, Maryland, in 
attempting to secure a 
peaceful navigation of 
the Potomac and other 
navigable waters be- 
tween them, although g^^,^^ jj^^,,^ Lightuousk 

such an agreement was 

considered by others as contrary to the provisions of 
the Articles of Confederation. In the winter of 1784-85 




1 The Vh-ginia htdependcnt Chronicle, August 8, 1787. The accom- 
panying illustration of the lighthouse is from the A^ew York Ulagazine, 
August, 1790. 



154 ^-^^ '^^''-^ ^^'^^ MADE THE NAT/ON 

the two state.; appointed a joint commission of eight 
men to meet the tollowing spring at Alexandria, the 
head of navigation on the Potomac.^ 

Ten miles down the river lived Washington, than 
whom no one was more interested in the questions likely 
to be discussed. He had been instrumental in securing 
the appointment of delegates, although himself not 
among their number. His diary shows: 

"Major Jenifer came here to dinner — and my carriage went 
to Gunston Hall to take Col" Mason to a meeting of Com" at 
Alexandria for settling the Jurisdiction of Chesapeak Bay & the 
River f'otomak & Pocomoke between the States of Virginia 
& Maryland. Afarch 21. — Major Jenifer left this for Alex- 
andria after Dinner. March 22. — Went to Alexandria — dined 
& returned in the Evening. March 24. — Sent my carriage to 
Alexandria for Col" Mason according to appointment — who 
came in, about dusk. March 25. — About One o'clock Major 
Jenifer, W Stone, M"" Chase, & AP Alex' Henderson arrived 
here. March 27. — .\P Henderson went to Colchester after 
dinner to return in the morning. March 28. — AP Henderson 
returned to the Meeting of the Commissioners ab' 10 Oclock 
— and AP Chase went away after dinner. Afarch 29. — Major 
Jenifer, M' Stone and M' Henderson went away before break- 
fast & CoP Mason (in my Carriage) after it ; by the return 
of which he sent me some young Shoots of the Persian Jessa- 
mine & Guilder Rose." 

F"our days were spent in getting the commission 
together at Alexandria. The latter sessions, owing to 

1 From Virginia: George Mason, Edmund Randolph, James Madison, 
and .Mexander Henderson; from Maryland : Danitd of .St. Thomas Jenifer, 
Thomas Johnson, Thomas Stone, and Samuel Chase. Madison, Randolph, 
and Johnson failed to attend the meeting. 



ALEXANDER UAMILTOIV 155 

poor accommodations, were held at Mount Vernon upon 
invitation of Washington. ^ Out of the report of this 
commission to their respective states grew the call of 
Virginia for a convention of commissioners from all the 
states to meet at Annapolis the following summer to 
consider the commercial defects of the Confederation. 
This call attracted the attention of Hamilton, con- 
stantly on the alert for some agency which might correct 
the faults of the existing government. He succeeded 
in getting five delegates, himself among the number, 
appointed by the New York Legislature to attend this 
meeting ; but when the time arrived only Attorney- 
general Benson and himself set out. Of the remaining 
three, one was ill, one was too busy, and the third made 
no excuse. Arrived at Annapolis, Hamilton shared the 
general disappointment. Only five states were repre- 
sented.^ To Monroe, who wrote despairingly from Con- 
gress, Madison replied from Annapolis : " Our prospect 
here makes no amends for what is done with you. Dela- 
ware, New Jersey, and Virginia alone are on the ground; 
two Commissioners attend from New York, and one 
from Pennsylvania. Unless the sudden attendance of 
a much more respectable number takes place, it is pro- 
posed to break up the meeting, with a recommendation of 
another time and place, and an intimation of the expe- 

1 Such hospitality was not unusual in the home of this wealthy Virginia 
planter. Under date of June 30, 1785, Washington wrote in his diary: 
" Dined with only M""^- Washington, which I believe is the first instance 
of it since my retirement from public life," two years before. 

2 From New York: Alexander Hamilton and Egbert Benson; from 
New Jersey : Aliraham Clark, William C. Houston, and James Schureman; 
from Pennsylvania: Tench Coxe; from Delaware: George Read, John 
Dickinson, and Richard Hassett; from Virginia: Governor Edmund Ran- 
dolph, James Madison, and St. George Tucker. 



156 THE- MEN' WHO MADE THE NATION 

diency of extending the plan to other defects of the 
Confederation." 

Everything seemed to work against the meeting. 
The bickerings among the states had destroyed what 
little feeling of nationality and willingness for coopera- 
tion had been engendered by the war. It was the low 
tide of unity. The air was rife with rumors of the 
dissolution of the four-year-old Confederation. New 
England feared the secession of the " back country " 
people, settled In the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, be- 
cause of the unchecked Spanish impositions on their 
lower Mississippi trade. Washington wrote to Harrison 
that the touch of a feather would turn them any way. 
Yet the government was too weak to force Spain to 
desist, even if New England had been willing to do it 
for the sake of this remote west. The southern states 
even fell to questioning the allegiance of New England. 
Monroe wrote from New York, " Conventions are held 
here of Boston men and others of this state upon the 
subject of a dissolution of the states east of the Hudson 
river from the union and the erection of them into a 
separate state." 

Another reason for failure to cooperate at this time 
was the question of revenue on imported goods. Some 
feared a convention would lead to the giving of this 
power to the central government and its loss to the 
states. Others feared a convention unrecognized by 
the Congress would lead to revolution. All through the 
question ran the rising fever for a new issue of paper 
money, which might be prevented by a convention.^ 

' Rcplyinp; to Washington's inquiry why the New England states failed 
tu send delegates to Annapolis, General Knox attributed the neglect of 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 157 

Hamilton was a leading spirit at Annapolis in insisting 
upon organization. John Dickinson, of Delaware, an 
active spirit during Revolutionary days, was placed in 
the chair. The reading of the credentials of delegates 
followed, and those of New Jersey were found to give 
power of devising " a uniform system in their commer- 
cial relations and other important matters." Appreciat- 
ing the value of this liberal instruction, Hamilton drew 
up a plan for another meeting the following spring 
(1787) to consider the defects of the Confederation in a 
wider sense. The suggested place of meeting, Phila- 
delphia, the old capital, was calculated to arouse national 
patriotism. The appeal was toned down a little from 
the Hamiltonian pitch and then adopted. After a four 
days' session, the convention adjourned with a call for 
another convention as the only visible fruit of their 
labors, and more despondent than hopeful of the result. 
But fate was intending to make this Annapolis conven- 
tion famous as the turning point in the long-continued 
ill fortune. 

In order to avoid the scruples some had held against 
the Annapolis convention, the call for this Philadelphia 
meeting was sent to Congress, where it lay for five 
months. In the meantime the legislatures of several 
states began to take action, and Congress was compelled 
to take the matter up or be again ignored. But the fear 
of allowing the initiative to come from the Annapolis 

New Hampshire to "torpidity"; of Rhode Island to "faction and heats 
about their paper money"; of Connecticut to "jealousy." "Massachu- 
setts had chosen delegates to attend who did not decline until very late, 
and the finding of other persons to supply their places was attended with 
delay, so that the convention had broken up by the time the new-chosen 
delegates had reached Philadelphia." 



158 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

meeting caused the substitution of a new call from the 
Massachusetts delegates as a starting point. The time 
and place were made to coincide with the Annapolis 
appeal. It was true that, in 1785, Massachusetts had 
suggested a convention of the people as a proper agency 
to remedy the faults in the frame of government, but so 
had Hamilton as early as 1780. A convention com- 
posed of delegates chosen by the people for this specific 
purpose was as near self-government as could ever be 
realized. 

In securing the appointment of delegates for this 
convention by the Legislature of his own state, Hamilton 
had to duplicate his task of the preceding year. It was 
not easy. New York was filled with the idea of partic- 
ularism. She realized the future prospects of her har- 
bor, the transportation value of the Hudson river, her 
importance as the coming commercial state, and the 
promise of her chief city. To yield the control of her 
foreign commerce to the Union seemed at the time vir- 
tual suicide. It would be the severance of the main 
stem of her resources. Therefore Madison, who was 
now in New York attending Congress, could write : 
" The deputation of New York consists of Colonel 
Hamilton, Judge Yates, and a Mr. Lansing. The two 
last are said to be pretty much linked to the anti-federal 
party here, and are likely, of course, to be a clog on their 
colleague." 

All through the states the work of appointing dele- 
gates went on, actuated by the spirit of Virginia, of 
which Madison wrote to Washington : " It has been 
thought advisable to give this subject a very solemn 
dress and all the weight that could be derived from a 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 159 

single State. This idea will be pursued in the selec- 
tion of characters to represent Virginia in the federal 
Convention. You will infer our earnestness on this 
point from the liberty which will be used of placing 
your name at the head of thjm." Only in Rhode 
Island did appointments fail to be made. 

Rhode Island was simply an extreme case of the 
financial situation everywhere. It was the oft-recurring 
struggle between creditor and debtor ; between the 
city merchant and the agriculturist ; between brains 
and strength of numbers. In trying to hit upon some 
plan to avoid taxes and to pay debts, the masses had 
created a bank whose paper money had to be accepted 
in pavment of all obligations. The merchants refused 
it, and trade became paralyzed. Then every one was 
forced under penalty to take a "test oath" that he 
would support the bank and accept the money at par, 
although it had fallen to six to one of coin. Debtors 
brought in their money in bags to discharge their 
mortgages. 

The attitude of Rhode Island placed her in ill repute 
among her sister states.^ Her people were called 

1 The following stanza on Rhode Island appeared in the Virginia 
Independent Chronicle of June 20, 17S7: 

" Mild is my clime, salubrious is my air, 
My prospect charming, and my females fair; 
My fertile fields do yield a plenteous store. 
Enough for my own use, and rather more; 
And yet, alas! I'm in a woful case; 
For I am cover'd o'er with foul disgrace : 
I blush to lift my head before the UNION, 
For with my sisters I refuse communion. 
Alas, for me ! how dismal is my fate ! 
My freeborn sons are so degenerate 
I fear their party broils will overturn my state." 



l6o THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

" Rogues Islanders," because they insisted on paying 
debts in depreciated money. From the frequent proc- 
lamations necessary to bolster up this money, her 
people were also known as " Know Ye men " and her 
money as " Know Ye" money. ^ Her "leathern apron 
worthy " referred to a blacksmith who had been made 
lieutenant-governor. The lawless sentiment was in the 
ascendency. It sympathized with and even aided the 
Shays rebellion in Massachusetts. 

This insurrection of Shays in orderly, Puritanical old 
Massachusetts opened the eyes of the people and 
showed them the dangerous situation into which neglect 
of civic duty and an over-regard for the individual had 
allowed the republic to drift. It was not composed of a 
lawless element, but of country people, groaning under 
taxes and burdened with debt, who saw claims filed 
against them under the law and processes issuing from 
the courts under which their farms and cattle were sold 
and themselves reduced to penury. The paper money 
of the state was in the hands of speculators. The 
national government had no mint. No money could be 
had to pay debts. 

Town meetings showed the first signs of the storm in 
Massachusetts. Resolutions demanded that courts be 
forever abolished ; that the " growing Power of Attor- 
neys or Barristers at Law " be checked ; that the state 

1 A burlesc|ue proclamation in the Chronicle of Freedom reads: 

"To all Knaves, or all who wish to be Knaves throughout the World, 
Greeting ; 

KNOW YK!! 
That by virtue of authority in me reposed I hereby inform you . . . there 
is at length an asylum provided for you. ... If you owe ;^8ooo, fly to 
Rhode Island; there /'looo will discharge the whole." 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON i6l 

Legislature be removed from Boston ; that money on 
hand and at interest be taxed ; and that land taken for 
debt should be valued at the price at which it stood 
when the debt was contracted. From words the insur- 
gents took to arms to close the courts. 

An ex-army chaplain, Day, and especially a Revolu- 
tionary captain, Daniel Shays, became accidental leaders 
in the series of uprisings which so alarmed the country. 
The Congress was powerless under the existing govern- 
ment to coerce the citizens of a state. Was Massachu- 
setts strong enough to protect herself .-' Washington 
wrote to David Humphreys: " What, gracious God ! is 
man, that there should be such inconsistency and per- 
lidiousness in his conduct .-* It was but the other day, 
that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitu- 
tions under which we now live ; constitutions of our own 
choice and making, and now we are unsheathing the 
sword to overturn them." ^ 

Rhode Island and Massachusetts were not alone in 
illustrating the loss of law and order. According to 
Madison,^ the prison, court house, and clerk's office in 
several counties of Virginia were burned. Elsewhere 
the course of justice was stopped, and associations were 
formed not to pay taxes. 

When Hamilton arrived at Philadelphia in May, 1787, 
he found that the reaction had set in. " Shaysism " had 
alarmed the country. Delegates were arriving every 
day, and they were truly "the flower of the continent." 

1 The rebellion lasted from August, 17S5, to the following February, 
included fifteen thousand men, and resulted in three deaths. See Knox's 
letters to Washington, Sparks's " Washington," Vol. IX., pp. 207, 234. 

2 " Madison's Works," Vol. I., p. 339. 

M 



1 62 THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATION 

They included the governors of Virginia and New 
Jersey, the president of Pennsylvania, an ex-governor of 
North Carolina, and an ex-president from South Caro- 
lina and from Pennsylvania, the chancellors of Virginia 
and South Carolina, the attorney-generals of New Jer- 
sey, Connecticut, and Delaware, and chief justices from 
Virginia, Connecticut, and New York. Each state was 
allowed to send as many as it chose, and Pennsylvania 
led with seven. The popular number was five. The 
"Indian Queen" was crowded, and every room in Mrs. 
Mary House's lodging house on Fifth and Market 
streets was taken. It was no doubt a relief to her when 
General Washington decided to accept an invitation to 
lodge with Robert Morris. 

Washington had consented to attend the Convention 
as a Virginia delegate only on the earnest solicitation of 
many friends. The governor of his state had written 
him : " I am persuaded, that your name has had already 
great influence to induce the States to come into the 
measure, that your attendance will be grateful, that 
your presence would confer on the assembly a national 
complexion, and that it would more than any other cir- 
cumstance induce compliance with the propositions of 
the convention." 

Washington's departure from home had been delayed 
by a rheumatic complaint which necessitated carrying 
his arm in a sling and, later, by a rumor that his mother 
and his sister were dangerously ill. But after giving 
directions to his nephew for the management of the 
farm in his absence, he set out a " little after sunrise " 
on Wednesday, May 9, and on the following Sunday 
reached Philadelphia. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON' 163 

"May 13. — About 8 Oclock W Corbin and myself set out, 
and dined at Chester (M" VVithys) where I was met by the 
Gen'^ Mifflin (now Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly) 
Knox and Varnum — The Colonels Humphreys and Minges 
— and Majors Jackson and Nicholas — With whom I proceeded 
to Philad" — at Grays Ferry the City light horse commanded 
by Col° Miles met me and escorted me in by the Artillery 
Officers who stood arranged & saluted as I passed — alighted 
through a crowd at M" Houses — but being again warmly and 
kindly pressed by M'' & M'" Rob' Morris to lodge with them 
I did so and had my baggage removed thither — Waited on 
the President Docf Franklin as soon as I got to Town — On 
my arrival, the Bells were chimed." ^ 

Such attention had been given to no other delegate, 
and it soon suggested Washington as the chairman of 
the Convention when a quorum should make organiza- 
tion possible. Ten days passed before that desired 
event happened. On Tuesday, Governor Randolph of 
Virginia arrived ; on Thursday, two South Carolina 
delegates appeared ; and on Friday, Washington had 
the pleasure of again meeting his young favorite and 
former aide, Hamilton. 

On the 25th, seven states were represented by two or 
more delegates, and the sessions began in the old Inde- 
pendence Hall, on the lower floor of the State House. 
The morning was inclement and a severe trial to the 
gouty Franklin, who had been mentioned as chairman 
of the body, but who wished to nominate Washington 
for that position had he been able to attend the fii-st 
meeting. It is said that the nomination of Washington 

1 From Washington's diary, Sparks's " Life and Writings of Washing- 
ton," Vol. IX., p. 539. 



1 64 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

made by Robert Morris was at the request of Franklin. 
The vote was unanimous. Major William Jackson, a 
former aide to Washington, and now practising law in 
Philadelphia, was made secretary. 

There must have been some premonition of the 
coming contentions and discord, since the committee 
on rules, of which Hamilton was a member, on the 
third day added this one, " That nothing spoken in 
the house be printed or otherwise published or com- 
municated without leave." Washington conscientiously 
wrote in his journal, " Attending the convention, and 
nothing being suffered to transpire, no minutes of the 
proceedings have been, or will be, inserted in this diary." 
This secrecy was undoubtedly wise, since it prevented a 
disclosure of the real weakness and dangerous condition 
of the country. But it was misunderstood, and subjected 
to violent criticism in the newspapers. One writer in- 
sisted that the opinions of thirty-nine men secluded 
from the rest of the world could have no weight. The 
suppression of their minutes was declared to be " the 
highest insult that could be afforded to the majority of 
the people." Lampoons appeared on Benny the Roofer 
and Bobby the Usurer.^ One critic declared Dr. Frank- 
lin a fool from age and Washington a fool from nature. 

Being unable to penetrate the closed doors, the people 
harbored wild rumors concerning the action of the Con- 
vention. A division into three republics, which Madi- 
son said was seriously considered before the Convention 
met, was now understood to be resolved upon. Some 
said the failure of the republic had been admitted, and 
that the Bishop of Osnaburg, the second son of George 

' Referring to Ucnjamiii I-'ranklin and Robert Morris. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON' 165 

III., had been elected king of the United States. A 
precedent for such an election had been found in the 
case of Poland. Others guessed that Rhode Island was 
to be annexed to Connecticut or kept forever out of the 
Union. Another writer, evidently having an inside hint, 
said that the difficulties of representation owing to the 
unequal sizes of the states were to be remedied by joining 
Delaware to Maryland and Rhode Island to Connecticut. 

The friends of good government counteracted these 
prophecies of evil with pleas for confidence in the Con- 
vention and the need of a true Union. One writer used 
the fable of the farmer and the bundle of sticks to illus- 
trate this need ; another took the homely but easily com- 
prehended illustration of a horse overturning a beehive 
and being stung to death by their united strength. Some 
described the condition of New York commerce where 
not a vessel was building. Others pointed to the wharves 
of Philadelphia where sixteen British vessels and but 
one American vessel were being loaded. 

On the 4th of July, these promoters of Union offered 
toasts to the final success of the Convention. The 
Philadelphia Society of the Cincinnati heard an ora- 
tion in the Reformed Calvinist church, to which the 
delegates also listened, and a salute of twenty-four 
rounds was fired by the Light Horse Infantry stationed 
near the State House. The various public houses gave 
especial dinners. Additional attentions were shown the 
visitors from time to time. They were invited to visit 
the Academy on Fourth street, the Bettering House, 
and to attend meetings of the Society of Agriculture in 
the Carpenters' Hall. They were also made familiar 
with the workings of the Society for Home Manufac- 



1 66 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

turc. Private dinners were given at the country-seats 
of wealthy gentlemen near the city and small entertain- 
ments in the pleasure grounds at Gray's Ferry. One 
day General Washington reviewed the Pennsylvania 
militia. One evening he attended in the College Hall 
a public lecture by Mrs. O'Connell on "The Power of 
Eloquence." " The lady, being reduced in circum- 
stances, had had recourse to this expedient to obtain 
a little money. Her performance was tolerable," said 
Washington. The newspapers declared that " notwith- 
standing the tempestuous weather," the lecture was 
"attended by a brilliant crowd of his [Washington's] 
friends of both sexes," who highly praised him as a 
patron of the arts and sciences. 

Entertainment of a more permanent kind was afforded 
on the Delaware river one day in August by a man 
named John Fitch, who had constructed a boat forty-five 
feet long.- In this he had placed an engine which pro- 
pelled six u])right oars on each side of the vessel. His 
earlier attempt at steam navigation had been received 
with "shouts of ridicule," and his years of besieging 
various state legislatures for aid, and beseeching men of 
wealth to embark in his enterprise, had made him the 
butt of innumerable jokes. He said that nearly all 
the delegates save Washington came to the river front 
to see his latest boat.^ Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecti- 
cut, was upon it, and Dr. Johnson, of Connecticut, gave 
him a testimonial. Governor Randolph, of Virginia, also 

' This was Fitch's second boat. Brissot de Warville, a French traveller, 
says of it : "I went to see an experiment near the Delaware on a boat, the 
ol)ject of which is to ascend rivers against the current. The inventor was 
Mr. Fitch, who had formed a company to support the exj^ence. . . . The 
invention was disputed between Mr. Fitch and Mr. Ramsey, of Virginia. 



ALEXANDER HAM/LTOiV 



167 



viewed it. Yet so slow was capital to invest in new 
enterprises, and so reluctantly did people patronize new 
agencies, that it was twenty years before Fulton's boat 
was running regularly between New York and Albany. 
The card-writers who kept the Philadelphia news- 
papers teeming with their attacks and defences of the 




METHOD *>' i 

r......^j,-,., .:;'.' Sc.^?*f^- 



Convention had drawn into the controversy a Connecti- 
cut schoolmaster, Noah Webster, who had come down 
to Philadelphia to lecture on his new system of spelling. 
He had pubHshed a " Grammatical Institute," in three 
parts, designed to instruct in pronouncing, speaking. 

However it be, the machine which I saw appears well executed and well 
adapted to the design. Tlie steam engine gives motion to three [sic] large 
oars of considerable force, which were to give sixty strokes per minute." 



1 68 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

and writing the English language correctly. ^ Webster 
was not a man to hide his light, and he was soon in the 
midst of a newspaper controversy. Some declared him 
to be an emissary of Shays. Infuriated at this charge, 
he described his writings in the Massachusetts press 
against Shaysism and said he had done as much as any 
man to put it down. His enemies then ridiculed " His 
Honor, Squire Web. . . r, alias the Trotabout Pedagogue, 
who has slain thousands with his gray goose quill." 
Turning their attention to his book, they made sport of 
his new word " yeif " (if ) and such innovations as cncroacJi, 
incalcitlate, sivcrvc, puTport, and betwixt (for between). 
Eventually the contest was taken up by the traditional 
enemies, the Episcopal Academy and the University of 
Pennsylvania, and Webster was lost sight of. 

Even in the scanty details of the Convention,^ the ar- 
dor of Hamilton is seen. He at first spoke rarely in the 

^ The first part of the " Institute " became " Webster's Spelling Book," 
which has had the largest sale of any schoolbook ever printed. It was 
also the prototype of Webster's Dictionary. The second part was the 
pattern fur a school grammar, and the third part for a reader. The part 
second shown in the accompanying illustration is in the Congressional 
Library at Washington. The torn pai)er at the edges discloses the boards 
in which it is bound. 

2 The "Journal of Proceedings " was entrusted to Washington, and was 
not made public until after his death, when it was printed by Jonathan 
Elliot, a Washington editor, together with the " Debates " on adopting the 
Constitution. After Madison's death, among his papers was found a 
"journal" of the daily deljates in the Convention. "I had chosen a 
seat in front of the presiding member, with the other members on my 
right and left hands. In this favorable position for hearing all that passed, 
I noted, in terms legible and abbreviations and marks intelligible to my- 
self, what was read from the Chair or spoken by the members; and losing 
not a moment unnecessarily between the adjournment and reassembling 
of the Convention, I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the 
session." These, with the letters written by the withdrawing members, 
supply the very scanty information about the Convention. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON- 1 69 

debates, but grew fearful as the new frame of govern- 
ment, designed to replace the Articles, assumed shape 
that it had not sufficient strength ; that it would not be 
much superior in this respect to the Articles themselves. 
Madison said that Hamilton's early silence was due 
partly from respect to others whose superior abilities, 
age, and experience rendered him unwilling to bring for- 
ward ideas dissimilar to theirs ; and partly from his 
delicate position in respect to his own state, to whose 
sentiments, as expressed by his colleagues, he could by 
no means accede. In the fourth week of the debates, 
Hamilton arose to confess himself dissatisfied with both 
the plans which the convention was trying to harmonize. 
He would prefer a National Legislature, consisting of an 
Assembly chosen for three years by the people and a 
Senate chosen for life by electors. He would have a 
Governor of the United States, chosen by electors, and 
to hold office during good behavior. Twelve judges, to 
serve during life, should make up a Supreme Court. In 
order to give this central government true national 
strength, it should have power to appoint the governors 
of the several states, who should then have veto power 
on all state legislation. 

The speech which accompanied this sketch, delivered 
with the true Hamiltonian spirit, had too much praise 
of the British government to please the Convention, and 
his plan met with no consideration. Almost immediately 
he left Philadelphia and returned to New York, from 
which place he wrote to Washington that the people 
of that city feared the Convention would " not go far 
enough. They seem to be convinced that a strong, well- 
mounted government will better suit the popular palate 



I/O THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

than one of a different complexion." He added that he 
was deeply distressed at the aspect of counsels which 
prevailed when he left Philadelphia, but would rejoin the 
Convention after ten or twelve days if he had reason to 
suppose that his attendance would not be a mere waste 
of time. 

The reply of Washington, in which he declared the 
situation worse than when Hamilton had left, and that 
he repented having had an agency in the business and 
urged Hamilton's immediate return, must have been balm 
to the piqued New Yorker. Even more convincing that 
the Convention was ready to listen to strong measures 
was the arrival in New York of Hamilton's colleagues, 
Messrs. Lansing and Yates, who had left the Convention 
because the new government, which it was forming, was 
practically a " consolidation of the states," would destroy 
their rights, and would bring no benefits in return. Per- 
haps the new system would be stronger than Hamilton 
had supposed. In rising spirits, he wrote to his returned 
colleagues offering to go back to Philadelphia " for the 
sake of propriety and public opinion," if either of them 
would accompany him. He also inquired twice of his 
friend, Rufus King, a delegate from Massachusetts, 
whether "a higher tone" had not been reached in the 
proceedings. He manifested a desire to be in the 
Convention when it closed. According to the min- 
utes of the Convention, he returned some day before 
August 20, when a motion of his was defeated. He 
took an active part in the remaining debates. Since 
the final adoption of the new Constitution was by 
vote of states, and two delegates were necessary in 
order to have a state represented. New York was silent; 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON' 171 

but Hamilton was allowed from courtesy to sign the 
document. 

Frequently nothing save respect for the presiding 
officer,^ and the conviction that the dissolution of the 
Union would follow, had prevented the disbanding" of 
the Convention. So critical grew affairs that Franklin, 
not a member of any church, moved that the daily pro- 
ceedings be opened by prayer ; but the proposition was 
rejected. It is supposed that seventy-three men were 
connected with the delegations from the various states 
in the Convention. Of these, eighteen did not attend 
and ten positively declined the mission. When the 
final vote on the Constitution was taken, sixteen, who 
had attended part of the time, were absent. Of these, 
four at least had withdrawn formally. Three of those 
who remained refused to sign the document for various 
reasons. Indeed, of the fifty-five men attending, only 
thirty-nine signed. Among those who declined to 
attend were Patrick Henry, Charles Carroll of Carroll- 
ton, and Richard Henry Lee. ' Those who refused to 
sign were Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, Governor 
Randolph of Virginia, and George Mason, of the same 
state. Among those who withdrew, refusing to be a 
party to the further proceedings, were Luther Martin 
and Mercer, of Maryland, and, as has been said, the two 
fellow-delegates of Hamilton, — Yates and Lansing, of 
New York.2 

1 One of Uie rules reads, " When the House shall adjourn, every mem- 
ber shall stand in his place until the President pass him." 

- These figures are taken from a monograph by Paul L. Ford, whose 
later investigations have supplemented the lists as given in Elliot's " De- 
bates," Vol. I., p. 124, and in Sparks's "Washington's Works." John 
Quincy Adams made out the list ft)r Elliot, and found sixty-live delegates 
appointed. Sparks has the same number. 



172 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

At last the Constitution, the fruits of ahnost four 
months of hard labor during the summer of 1787/ lay- 
before the Convention phrased in faultless English by 
the hand of Gouverneur Morris. In three great com- 
promises the members had reconciled the long-standing 
differences between the large states and small states ; 
between the slave-holding and non-slavery interests ; 
between the commercial and agricultural elements. In 
the closing hours Hamilton had said that no man's ideas 
were more remote from the plan than his own were 
known to be ; but he would not hesitate between the 
chance of good coming from it, and anarchy and con- 
vulsion. In sending a copy to Lafayette, Washington 
called it a child of fortune, and to Patrick Henry he 
wished it had been more perfect, but sincerely believed 
it was the best that could be obtained at that time. 

The criticism which had attended the Convention 
broke out afresh when the printed document was given 
out. This Convention, called for the express purpose 
of amending the Articles of Confederation, had deliber- 
ately exceeded its powers and drawn up a new frame, 
which it now sent to the old Congress proposing that it 
be submitted to the states. When ratified by nine states 
it was to go into effect. Here was a revolution. The 
old government was asked to commit suicide. And 

1 "The l)usiness being thus do.sed, the Members adjourned to the City 
Tavern, dined together and took a cordial leave of each other — after 
which I returned to my lodgings — did some business with, and received 
the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate 
on the momentous w^ which had been executed, after not less than five, for 
a large part ot the time Six, and sometimes 7 hours sitting every day 
[except], Sundays & the ten days adjournment to give a Com^« opportunity 
& time to arrange the business for more tiian four Months." Washing- 
ton's diary. Sec Sparks's " Washington," Vol. IX., p. 541. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 1 73 

what was offered in its stead ? asked the critics. An 
aristocratic government, formed by aristocrats in a 
secret convention. There was to be a "president" 
elected every four years, but as many times as he and 
his supporters could manage. Having control of the 
army and navy, he would resemble the mighty Abdul 
Ahmed, the Turkish Sultan ; the Senate would be his 
Divan; the standing army his Janizaries; the judges, 
unchecked by vile juries, his Cadis; Bishop Seabury 
his Mufti. Objection was made to the superior powers 
of the Senate, which would eventually swallow up the 
House; to the central government having control of 
the state militia ; to the Supreme Court having power 
to judge of law, equity, and fact. There was no Bill of 
Rights ; no assured protection of the individual against 
the government. 1 No wonder, it was said, that President 
Franklin, of Pennsylvania, had shed tears on signing such 
a monstrosity. It must never be adopted by nine states. 
The Assembly of Pennsylvania had convened during 
the sitting of the Convention, occupying a room in the 
State House, over that body. When it attempted to 
bring up the calling of a state convention to consider the 
proposed Constitution, twenty of the members from the 

1 A handbill circulated in Boston enumerated, among others, the fol- 
lowing disadvantages of Federalism upon the New Plan : 

I. The Trade of Boston transferred to Philadelpliia : and the Boston 
tradesmen starving. 

4. An infinite Multiplication of Offices to provide for ruined Tortnnes. 

5. A Standing Army, and a N'avy, at all Times kept up, to give genteel 
Employment io the idle and extravagant. 

7. The wealthy retiring to Philadelphia to spend their revenues, while 
we are oppressed to pay Rents and Taxes to .Absentees. 

II. Representatives chosen in such a manner, as to make it a Business 
for Life. 

13. Religion Abolished. 



174 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION- 

country absented themselves to prevent a quorum. 
The sergeant-at-arms and the clerk, with " a number of 
volunteer gentlemen," went to Boyd's coffee-house and, 
seizing two of the absentees,^ carried them into the 
Assembly to make up the quorum. There they were 
held and counted present and as voting in the affirma- 
tive. In that way was the convention called in Pennsyl- 
vania, but Delaware succeeded in securing a convention 
and ratifying the Constitution before Pennsylvania, 
although that state was second. Similar signs of com- 
pulsion were not wanting elsewhere. It was indeed a 
pure revolution or overthrow of one frame of govern- 
ment by another. Quite naturally, revolutionary and 
intimidatory methods would accompany.^ 

The friends of the new proposition rallied to its de- 
fence. Taking the name of "Federalists," they fastened 
upon the opposition the name " Anti-Federalists." It 
was declared in Boston that an Anti-Federalist and a 
Tory were held in the same esteem. A writer in a 
Philadelphia paper suggested that the state Assembly 
should remove all Anti-Federalists from ofifice. The 
members who ran away from the Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly were threatened with violence.'^ In Connecticut it 

' Clayniont and ^ililey. 

^ A S(]uib went the rounds of the papers to this effect : 

"Here, too, I saw some mighty pretty shows, 
A revolution without blood or blows; 
For, as 1 understood the cunning elves, 
The people all revolted from themselves." 

' Among the numerous pasquinades circulated on this occasion, one 
stanza reads: 

" Thttugh rascals and rogues they may call, 
Vet now we may laugh at them all; 
'Twas well we escaj^ed with whole bones, 
For we merited horsewhips and stones." 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON" 1 75 

was proposed to "blacklist" those who refused to peti- 
tion the legislature to call a convention. Paul Revere 
marshalled his four hundred mechanics in Boston, and 
their resolutions had a persuading effect on the Massachu- 
setts convention. Men of property were urged to stand 
together for the new plan and to use tar and feathers if 
necessary. It was a revival of the old feeling against 
the Tories, and one of the first of many exhibitions of 
intolerance in the rcpubhc. It was suggested by one 
contributor that if the Constitution were rejected. Shays 
should be made governor of Massachusetts, and the 
rest of America should be divided between Great Britain 
and Morocco ; that Silas Deane, Galloway, and Benedict 
Arnold should be made governors of America, but that 
Arnold should not be assigned to Rhode Island lest he 
be corrupted by living in such a nest of speculators and 
traitors. 

By the close of the year 1787, New Jersey had rati- 
fied. Early in the new year came Connecticut, and then 
followed Massachusetts, Georgia, Maryland, and South 
Carolina. One more state was needed. The conven- 
tion of New Hampshire met, but adjourned. It was now 
June, and attention was divided between Virginia and 
New York. In the former state the Constitution was 
attacked by Patrick Henry, Governor Randolph, George 
Mason, Benjamin Harrison, and young James Monroe. 
It was defended by Madison and John Marshall. Al- 
though not in the convention, Washington gave his con- 
stant influence for the adoption of the new government. 
It seemed that Virginia would be the ninth state, but 
while the debates .proceeded, the convention of New 
Hampshire reassembled and secured that honor. 



1/6 



THE AfEN WHO MADE THE NATIOiV 



% 



The good news from New Hampshire, according to 
the arrangement of Hamilton, was carried by an express, 
on the shortest route, by frequent change of horse and 
with all possible diligence, to the New York convention 

sitting at Pough- 
kecpsie. Hamilton 
had made further 
preparations for 
this convention by 
inaugurating soon 
after the forma- 
tion of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, a 
"series of papers 
to be written in its 
defence." They 
were issued sepa- 
rately over the 
signature " Pub- 
lius," but when 
collected were 
called " The Fed- 
eralist." Madison, 
who had returned 
to the Congress at 

some of the num- 
bers, as did John Jay, a resident of that city. These 
essays were bound in two volumes, one in " common " 
and the other in " finer " binding, and circulated widely.^ 

1 In the Pliila.lclplna Inccpendeut GazctUer. 

2 Washington wrote to Hamilton that he had read every performance 



and ija»ced9y wiH be pUblifliedj 

A Colle<5i:ion of Efiays written ip fa 
vor of the New Cbnftitutioh. 
', By Citlxtn of NnV'Tori. 
t Corrtfted by the Aiithor, witlj 'Additions 
■ •' and AlteratFons. / ' • 
Thhttjork iJoiU be printed on a Jbtt Paper 
aiidgacd Tjpe, if »>ie kandfome Volume duo- 
' decifitt, 1 and delivered to fubfcribtrs at the 
moderate frice q/'ene dollar ^ A few .copies 
tviil be printed on ptperjuu royal luriiing pa- 
per ^ prut tenjbillvtgt. 
, _No ^onejf required till dtftvety. 
..'tp remUr this work tnore complete, iiillbf 
added, ivitiout any additional txpeiiee, 

; PHILO-PUBLIUS, 

4N,» THE 

Articles of ' t&e Convention, 

. Ai agreed upon at FhilaJelphiu, Ecptem- 

ber tytb, 1787. , 
rill — 1:- — . . ._■ 



ALEXANDER HAM/LTOiV 177 

Editors friendly to the new Constitution were urged to 
reprint portions of them. 

In the beginning, Hamilton had written to Madison 
from Poughkeepsie, "Our adversaries greatly outnum- 
ber us." One month later he wrote, " Our fears dimin- 
ish." The opposition had commanded forty-six out of 
sixty-five votes when the convention opened and had 
made their leader, Governor Clinton, president. Ham- 
ilton answered their attacks on the Constitution, 
defended himself in a two days' controversy with Lan- 
sing against the charge of having been walling in the 
Philadelphia Convention to sacrifice the states, and even- 
tually saw one of his great opponents, Melancton Smith, 
voting on the affirmative side. The favorable news 
from New Hampshire had also a good effect. It had 
been forwarded by Hamilton's father-in-law. General 
Schuyler, to Virginia, and had undoubtedly shown the 
futility of that state holding out. In turn, the news 
of the adoption in Virginia was hurried to New York, 
and aided in winning the last of the great states for a 
trial of the new plan, but only by a vote of thirty to 
twenty-seven. 

Preparations for inaugurating the new government 
were at once undertaken. It was true that only " eleven 
pillars" had as yet been placed in the "national edifice." 
But the adjournment of the North Carolina state con- 
on both sides of the controversy, and, without an unmeaning compliment, 
could say that he had seen no other so well calculated to produce con- 
viction on the unbiassed mind as the production of the " triumvirate." To 
Madison he wrote, " Perceiving that the FeJeralist under the signature 
of PUBLIUS is about to be republished, I would thank you to forward me 
three or four copies, one of which is to be bound, and inform me of its 
cost." 



178 THE MEN' WHO MADE THE NATION 

vention to see whether another Federal Convention 
would not be called, was felt to be only temporary. 
As for Rhode Island, there seemed to be a gen- 
eral determination to ignore her. The constitutional 
provision for electing a President through electors 
would require time. The Confederation Congress there- 
fore soon selected the first Wednesday in January for 
choosing the electors in the different states in such 
manner as each might wish ; the first Wednesday in 
February for the meeting of these electors and the cast- 
ing of their ballots ; and the first Wednesday in March 
for the meeting of the Senate and the House of Repre- 
sentatives, the opening of the ballots, and the real 
beginning of the new government. Having thus sealed 
its death warrant, the poor old Congress slowly ex- 
pired of absenteeism. Intrigue had at once begun for 
the prize of the new capital. Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
Wilmington, Harrisburg, and New York were advo- 
cated, the latter eventually securing it, because the 
government was already located there and no place 
could be agreed upon. The southern members pro- 
posed the Potomac river, but were defeated by the 
middle states and New England. 

Speculations were also indulged in concerning the 
first President and Vice-President. Before the new gov- 
ernment had been assured one month, Hamilton wrote 
to Washington : " I take it for granted, sir, you have 
concluded to comply with what will no doubt be the 
general call of your country in relation to the new gov- 
ernment. You will permit me to say that it is indis- 
pensable you should lend yourself to its first operations. 
It is of little purpose to have introduced a system, if the 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 179 

weightiest influence is not given to its firm estabiisli- 
inoit in the outset." ^ 

Hamilton undoubtedly voiced pubUc sentiment when he 
wrote in a subsequent letter, " I am not sure that your 
refusal would not throw everything into confusion." 
Concerning the vice-presidency, he favored John Adams, 
at this time minister to England, rather than Hancock, 
although he thought Adams possessed certain "jealous- 
ies " and a rumored hostility to Washington. Still, if not 
made Vice-President, he might "be nominated to some 
important office for which he is less proper, or become 
a malcontent." General Lincoln wrote to Washington 
that Massachusetts was happy to find it to be "the 
unanimous voice of this rising empire that Your Excel- 
lency, who has so just a claim to the merit of its estab- 
lishment, should now take it under your protection." 
Franklin wrote to a- French correspondent, " General 
Washington is the man that all our eyes are fixed upon 
for President, and what little influence I have is devoted 
to him." 

Hamilton was gratified by this growing assurance 
that his former chief would become the head of this 
last experiment in government, to which he had devoted 
so much energy and for which he had such high hopes. 
The greatest danger w^s that the Constitution would 
be interpreted so narrowly and administered so defer- 
entially that it could not compete with the states which 
had created it. A military mind was not likely to be 
hampered by constitutional quibbles. It was also quite 
natural for Hamilton to suppose that he would not be 
without influence with Washington ; but that he foresaw 

^ Lodge's "Hamilton's Works," Vol. I., p. 194. 



l8o THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAITON 

his great career as Secretary of the Treasury is im- 
Hkely. In New York City, Hamilton watched with 
much interest the preparations being made for the inau- 
guration of the new Constitution, for whose inception 
and final adoption he deserves more credit than can 
justly be ascribed to any other man. 

^^ Resolved, That the first Wednesday in January next be the 
day for appointing electors in the several states, which, before 
the said day shall have ratified the said constitution ; that the 
first Wednesday in February next, be the day for the electors to 
assemble in their respective states, and vote for a president ; and 
that the first Wednesday in March next, be the time, and the 
present seat of Congress the place for commencing proceedings 
under the said constitution." — Journal of [Confederation] 
Congress, September 13, 17S8. 



CHAPTER VI 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE FIRST PRESIDENT 

New York, April 6, 17S9. 
Sir : — I have the honor to transmit to your Excellency the 
information of your unanimous election to the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States of America. Suffer me, sir, to 
indulge the hope that so auspicious a mark of public confi- 
dence will meet with your approbation, and be considered as 
a pledge of the affection and support you are to expect from 
a free and enlightened people. I am. Sir, 

Yr obt sevt, 

John Langdon. 

Mount Vernon, 14 April, 17S9. 
Sir : — I had the honor to receive your official communica- 
tion by the hand of M'' Secretary Thom])son, about one o'clock 
this day. Having concluded to obey the important and flatter- 
ing call of my Country, and having been impressed with an idea 
of the expediency of my being with Congress at as early a 
period as possible ; I propose to commence my journey on 
Thursday morning which will be the day after to-morrow. I 
have the honor to be with sentiments of esteem, Sir, 

Your obedient servt, 

Geo. Washington. 

Washington had consented to undertake the task of 
starting the executive machinery provided by the newly 
adopted Constitution. He accepted the risk as he had 

181 



1 82 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

done in the Revolution. If the experiment should fail 
he would go down with it. 

On the day appointed, the first Wednesday in Janu- 
ary, the choice of presidential electors ^ had been under- 
taken in the several states according to the manner of 
holding elections in each. In Massachusetts, Maryland, 
and Virginia the election was left largely with the 
people. Elsewhere the state legislatures chose the elec- 
tors. Like the faithful citizen that he was, Washington 
rode up to Alexandria on Wednesday, January 7, to 
cast his vote. Dr. Stuart, who had married Mrs. Custis, 
the widow of Mrs. Washington's son, was chosen elector 
for the district. 

During the month before the electors met, there was 
no campaigning nor electioneering, but it was under- 
stood that Washington's name was one of the two 
which would be written by every elector on his ballot. 
Indeed it was only the assurance that Washington 
would be chosen and would accept the headship of the 
new venture that had persuaded many timid people to 
give it a trial. 

Although the ballots cast by the electors at their 
meetings in their respective states on the first Wednes- 
day in February were not to be opened for a month, 
Washington began quietly to make preparations to leave 
the comfortable home and the ideal plantation he was 
trying to make at Mount Vernon, and to undertake 
again the tribulations of public life. During the eight 
years of the Revolutionary war he had been at home 
but twice, and then for a few days only. The six years 
since the war had scarcely allowed a recovery of his 

1 .As provided in the Constilutiun, Article II., Sections i, 2, 3, 4. 



GEORGE IVASHINGTON 183 

affairs and the inauguration of the extensive improve- 
ments which he planned for his estate. His corre- 
spondence reveals the reluctance with which he viewed 
the prospect. To an office-seeker he said, " The first 
wish of my soul is to spend the evening of my days as 
a private citizen on my farm." To his long-time friend, 
Harrison, he wrote, " Heaven knows that no event can 
be less desired by me, and that no earthly consideration 
short of so general a call, together with a desire to 
reconcile contending parties as far as in me lies, could 
again bring me into public life." He was obliged to 
send his secretary, Tobias Lear, to Captain Richard 
Conway, of Alexandria, to solicit the loan of ^600 on 
interest. Otherwise he must be obliged to leave home 
in debt and without a sufficient sum to pay his travel- 
ling expenses. The financial hardships of the Confed- 
eration bore on the Virginia planter as well as on the 
Massachusetts farmer. Washington also gave the short 
crops as the cause of his embarrassment. " Never till 
within these two years have I experienced the want of 
money." 

Washington paid a visit of respect to his mother at 
Fredericksburg, now in her eighty-second year. It was 
a last farewell, since she died the following summer- 
To Governor Clinton, of New York, who tendered him 
the use of his house, Washington replied that he would 
take hired lodgings or rooms in a tavern until some 
house could be provided. At the same time he wrote 
to Madison, a representative in the new Congress, to 
secure such public accommodation for him, as well as 
for his secretary, Lear, and for Colonel Humphreys, 
formerly his aide and now a member of his household. 



1 84 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

In the meantime the state legislatures had conducted 
their elections for senators without much difficulty save 
in New York, where a deadlock between the two branches 
prevented a choice. Rhode Island and North Carolina 
were also unrepresented, since neither had yet accepted 
the Constitution. The election of representatives in the 
various states had been irregularly conducted, a proc- 
lamation of the governor of New Jersey being necessary 
to close the polls in the eastern section after two weeks 
of voting. 

The members began to assemble in New York as 
rapidly as the condition of the roads and the opening 
of navigation would permit. But when the first Wednes- 
day in March arrived, there was no quorum in either 
the Senate or the House. It was the same old story of 
neglect. It would have been a surprise if anything con- 
nected with government had started on time. Neverthe- 
less, as Robert Morris, who had gone to New York as 
a senator from Pennsylvania, wrote to his wife : " Last 
night they fired 13 cannon from the Battery here over 
the Funeral of the Confederation and this morning they 
saluted the new Government with 1 1 Cannon, being one 
for each of the States that have adopted the Constitu- 
tion. The Flag was hoisted on the Fort and Federal 
Colours were displayed on the top of the new Edifice 
and at several places of the City." ^ 

Some of the members after waiting patiently day 
after day for a quorum grew discouraged. One wrote 
home: "We lose ^1000 a day revenue; we lose credit, 
spirit, everything, by this delay. The public will forget 

' From a manuscript letter in the Pennsylvania Historical Society 
Library at Philadelphia. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON' 185 

the government before it is born. The resurrection of 
the infant will come before its birth. The old Congress 
still continues to meet, but it seems doubtful whether 
the old government is dead or the new one alive." 
Others took a more hopeful view of the situation, and 
after securing lodgings walked about to view the city 
which had by chance become the first capital under the 
Constitution. 

Especially the new members were interested in the 
building provided by the city of New York for their 
accommodation. The City Hall, which stood in Wall 
street at the head of Broad street , had been erected in 
1 700 ; but, with thirty thousand dollars raised by a lottery 
and a public subscription, it was now remodelled after 
the plans of Major L' Enfant. A new front was placed 
on the building, extending it out over the sidewalk on 
Wall street in a series of arches. It embraced a small 
balcony, supported by four Doric pillars, and was orna- 
mented above with the eagle, thirteen stars, and bunches 
of arrows encircled with olive branches. 

The vestibule on the ground floor opened into the hall 
to be occupied by the House of Representatives. This 
room was sixty-one feet deep, fifty-eight wide, and 
thirty-six high, being lighted by large windows placed 
sixteen feet from the floor and hung with blue damask. 
The four fireplaces were ornamented with Ionic columns 
and pilasters. Two galleries fronted the speaker's plat- 
form. The lower gallery was on a level with the Senate 
chamber, which occupied the second .story upon the 
opposite side of the building. This room was forty feet 
long, thirty wide, and twenty high, with an arched ceil- 
ing. The ceiling was ornamented with a sun and thir- 



1 86 THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATION 

teen stars. The fireplaces were made of American 
marble. Ciimson hangings were about the windows 
and the dais over the Vice-President's chair.^ 

Thirty representatives and twelve senators were nec- 
essary for a quorum. Appeals were sent out by the 
impatient members already assembled, but it was not so 
easy to overcome habits of neglecting official duties. 
At last on April 13, almost a month late, the House 
had a quorum, and one week later the Senate was 
equally fortunate. The House then marched up to 
the Senate chamber and with Langdon, of New Hamp- 
shire, president pro tern, of the Senate, in the chair, the 
electoral ballots were opened. Sixty-five had been 
cast by the electors in the various states, and upon each 
appeared the name of George Washington. With his 
name there appeared upon the various ballots for Vice- 
President the names of John Adams, John Jay, Hancock, 
and a number of men prominent in their respective 
states. Adams had received thirty-four, and was de- 
clared elected to the vice-presidency. Immediately 
Charles Thomson, ^ clerk of the Continental Congress 
for so many years, was sent to the President-elect to 
notify him of his selection, and Sylvester Bowen [Bourne] 
was despatched on a similar errand to the Vice-President- 
elect. 

In three days, by packet and horse, Bowen reached 
Braintree, now a suburb of Boston, and found John 
Adams trying to regain his law practice after ten years' 
absence on diplomatic service in Europe. The latter 

^ A full description of this Federal Hall, with the cut reproduced on 
page 196, was printed in the Columbian Magazine, August, 1789. 

■•^ Mention of his services in the Revolutionary times was made in 
Chapter III. 



GEOR GE J I 'ASHhYG TON 



187 



5«^ ]■ 



New-York, Apnl 7. |1 



C O N Ci R Iv s s 

Yertero»5' the t' 
Room, and opened t 
Vicc-PreliJt-nt, Mr. Liogt 
HrcfiJfn: of the Senile on ihiTocca 




v«as found tr. Iisve bci.* 
dent, and '';hn Ad.iins 



will a^corcinr^ 



fc: c.T th'n 



three years of that time he had spent most unhap- 
pily as the first minister from the United States 
to England. He felt himself slighted. His demands 
for an open trade with the British West Indies were 
ignored. Mrs. Adams was snubbed by Queen Charlotte, 
and no minister 
was sent to the 
United States in 
return. In fact 
there was not lack- 
ing the suggestion, ■ 
all too annoying 
because of its truth, 
that if thirteen min- 
isters were sent to 
England by these 
quarrelling states, 
one would be sent 
to them. John Ad- 
ams, hard as the 
granite rocks of 
his own Massachu- 
setts, remonstrated 
in vain, and was 
finally relieved, re- 
turning to America 
as he said, " from 
prison." 

The critics o"f John Adams claimed that he was sur- 
prised at the difference between the number of votes 

1 From the Pennsylvania Packet. This was tlie most complete account 
published of the first election of a President. 



th.- 



;n;leni£n citLleJ lU lue ho- 



I.i ; -< [ ' ! Ill) havi fongh:, 

.:,; 1 -.•. i 1 : l";e ivilLic and 

^:j.y .;! t:.. :.;.: Yst :t niua bf 

contclVed, chst » irui pstrioj is a A»rac>cr not 
J?.SfillfJP^efcu"J- As long a« our country feels 

L«.«nri- Heliii:h Dfiidcjiefi^iaightAnitaLi 



Full News of the First Presidential 
Election ^ 



1 88 THE MEN" WHO MADE THE N'ATION 

cast for Washington and the number cast for himself ; 
that he could not understand how a miUtary life could 
be considered a better training for the presidency than 
civil and diplomatic experience. But Washington was 
only the first of a number of war heroes in America 
who have been called to civic honors. Adams left at 
once for New York and was shown gratifying attention 
all along his way. Horsemen rode out to escort him 
and ofificials to greet him. Arrived in New York City, 
he became the guest of John Jay ^ and wife at their 
beautiful home on the Broad Way. Mrs. Adams had 
crossed to the continent when her husband returned to 
America, and she was still abroad. The Vice-President 
was installed on April 21, without much ceremony. 

One week was consumed by Charles Thomson, the 
other messenger from Congress, in traversing the April 
highways to Mount Vernon. Two days after his arrival 
the President-elect was ready to start for New York. 
He seemed to have a premonition of coming troubles. 
To his old war friend, Knox, he wrote, " My move- 
ments to the chair of state will be accompanied by feel- 
ings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the 
place of his execution ; so unwilling am I, in the even- 
ing of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a 
peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties." In his jour- 
nal, under Thursday, April 16, he wrote, "About ten 
o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, 
and domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with 
more anxious and painful sensations than I have words 

1 Jay was still Secretary of P\)rei<;n Affairs under the old Continental 
Congress. His wife w^as the celebrated Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, 
eldest daughter of William Livingston, of New Jersey. 



CEOR GE 1 J 'ASHING 70 iV 



189 



to express, set out for New York in company with M' 
Thompson and CoP Humphreys." 

As he rode away from the crescent-shaped front of 
his home, he waved a farewell to Mrs. Wasliington, who 
was unable to endure the horseback journey to New 
York and was debarred from any other means of con- 
veyance by the condition of the roads at that season of 
the year. As he neared the boundary of his plantation, 
he found his slaves assembled to bid him farewell. 




An Old View of Mount Vkrnon ^ 



When he reached Alexandria, his old friends met him 
and escorted him by the ferry to Georgetown, and dined 
with him at Wise's tavern. The citizens of that village 
presented him with an address as their Fabius who, in 
the evening of his days, bids farewell to his peaceful 
retreat in order to save his country once more from 

1 This sketch in the Library of Congress, Washington, is marked 
"Taken Aug. 7, 179S, hy Ceo. I. Parkvns, Esq." It shows the land 
approach, which was really the front of the house. 



190 THE MEIV WHO MADE THE NATION 

confusion and anarchy. A body of citizens escorted 
him to Spurrier's tavern, where he was met by a Balti- 
more corps. Greeted by a discharge of artillery, he 
entered that city the following" afternoon, and stopped 
at Grant's Fountain Inn, where a committee of citizens 
waited upon him at six o'clock with an address. Hav- 
ing arrived too late for a public dinner, he ate supper 
with the gentlemen and retired about ten o'clock.^ 

At half-past five the following morning he rode out of 
Baltimore escorted by some citizens, who turned back, 
after seven miles, upon his solicitation. The next morn- 
ing (Sunday) he reached Wilmington, and rested until 
Monday, when he was waited upon by the corporation 
and many inhabitants to present to him an address. 
Before high noon he had reached Gray's Ferry across 
the Schuylkill, really the entrance to Philadelphia, and 
found awaiting him President Mifflin, of the state of 
Pennsylvania, Governor St. Clair, of the Northwest 
Territory, Speaker Richard Peters, of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly, and other officials. The hand railing on each 
side of the bridge had been dressed with laurels inter- 
woven with cedar. A triumphal arch twenty feet high, 
surmounted by a liberty cap, a rattlesnake flag, and 
eleven colors, adorned each end. On the west arch was 
hung a crown of laurel, with a line running to the river 
bank by which a boy was to allow the crown to descend 
on the head of the hero as he rode beneath. ^ 

^ William Spohn Baker, of Philadelphia, has left a monument to his 
industry in collecting incidents concerning Washington. Some of the 
quotations in this chapter are to be found in his " Itinerary of General 
Washington" and "Washington after the Revolution." Many of them 
may be found in Sparks's " Life and Writings of Washington." 

'■^ The Massachusetts Magazine, September, 1792. The illustration on 
the opposite i)age is from the same source. 



192 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

As Washington rode through the streets of Philadel- 
phia to the magnificent home of his friend, Robert 
Morris, continued cheering greeted him. No one could 
remember having seen so many people on the streets. 
At three o'clock he sat down to a dinner of 250 covers 
at the City tavern, where a discharge of artillery greeted 
every toast. The following morning he accepted numer- 
ous addresses and then departed for Trenton, where he 
found a troop of horse and a company of infantry, 
"compleatly equipped and in full uniform," drawn up on 
the Jersey bank of the Delaware. When the procession 
arrived at the bridge over Assanpink creek, rendered 
memorable by the battle of Trenton, it passed under a 
triumphal arch about twenty feet wide, and supported by 
thirteen columns. The whole was decorated with laurel, 
running vines, and a variety of evergreens. On the 
front of the arch was inscribed, " The Defender of the 
Mothers will also Protect the Daughters." Above were 
the dates of the battles of Trenton and Princeton. On 
the summit was a dome in the shape of a sunflower 
always pointing to the sun, as emblematic of the hopes 
of the people in Washington. 

" A numerous train of ladies, leading their daughters, 
were assembled at the arch, thus to thank their Defender 
and Protector. As the General passed under the arch, 
he was addressed in the following Sonata, composed 
and set to music for the occasion, by a number of young 
ladies dressed in white, decked with wreaths and chap- 
lets of flowers, and holding in their hands baskets filled 
with flowers : 

"Welcome, mighty Chief! once more, 
Welcome to this jrrateful shore : 



194 TH1-: MEN~ WHO MADE THE NATION 

Now no mercenary foe 
Aims again the fatal blow — 
Ai/iis at thee t lie fatal blow. 

"Virgins fair, and Matrons grave, 
Those thy conquering arms did save, 
Build for thee triumphal bowers. 
Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers — 
Streiv your Hero''s way with /lowers .'^ ^ 

Lodging with President Witherspoon at Princeton 
College, Washington reached New Brunswick under 
escort on Wednesday, lodged at Woodbridge, and on 
Thursday morning at nine rode into Elizabethtown. 
Here he was met and joined by the committee of Con- 
gress^ and several state officials from New York. Pro- 
ceeding to the Point on Newark bay, he found a barge 
prepared for him, rowed by thirteen skilful pilots. 
Crossing the bay and passing through the Kill von KuU, 
the barge came upon New York bay, to find it alive with 
small vessels gayly dressed, which fell into line behind 
the official boat. A barge appeared, bearing General 
Kno.x and other generals. At Bedloe's island a large 
sloop came up with full sail, in which twenty men and 
women sang anode to the tune of " God save the King." 
Other odes were sung from other boats and copies 
handed to the guest of honor. A Spanish packet dis- 
closed the colors of all nations and gave thirteen guns, 
with her yards manned. 

The shores of New York from the fort to Murray's 

^ From the Gazette of the United States, April 29, 1789. The illus- 
tration on the preceding page is from the Colttinl>ian Magazine, May, 
1789. 

- An excellent description of the reception of the fust President in New 
York, written hy one of these officials, may be found in " The Life of 
Ellas Boudinot," Vol. II., p. 41. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 1 95 

wharf were filled with people, " heads standing as 
thick as ears of corn before the harvest." From the 
fort a battery of eighteen-pounders thundered. At the 
landing place, the stairs leading up from the ferry were 
covered with carpet and the railing with crimson. At 
the head stood Governor Clinton, of New York State, 
with staff and military. Near at hand the old Revolu- 
tionary soldiers were drawn up. Through this vast 
crowd, Washington was escorted to the Osgood or 
Walter Franklin house, ^ which had been selected by the 
committee for his temporary residence. In the after- 
noon there was a dinner at Governor Clinton's and in 
the evening, despite the rain, a general illumination of 
the city. 

During the week in which Washington recovered 
from the fatigues of the journey, with no ceremonies 
save being waited upon by the Senate, the House of 
Representatives, and the Chamber of Commerce, the 
finishing touches were put on Federal Hall, and th'e city 
became so filled with strangers that both public and 
private accommodations were exhausted, and tents were 
erected on the Bowling Green. 

Thursday, the 30th day of April, was fair, and the 
services held in the different churches at nine o'clock 
were well attended. About noon, a procession was 
formed composed of a troop of horse, artillery, grena- 
diers, German grenadiers, the infantry of the brigade, the 
sheriff, the committee of the Senate, the President-elect 
and suite, the committee of the House, General Knox, 
Chancellor Livingston, of the state of New York, and a 
multitude of citizens. As the procession neared the new 

^ This house stood near what is iu)\v Franklin square. 



196 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/ OAT 



Federal Hall, comiiiij; from the Franklin house, the mili- 
tary companies ojjened ranks and allowed Washington 
and the civic contingent to pass into the building and up- 
stairs into the Senate Chamber, where he was formally 
presented to both houses of Congress. Immediately 
afterward, accompanied by the committees, he stepped 
out into the little balcony overlooking the street below. 




Federal Hall, New York Cnv 1 



Chancellor Livingston administered to him the simple 
oath prescribed in the Constitution, while Secretary 
Charles Otis, of the Senate, held a Bible on a red plush 
cushion. It had been rather hastily brought from a 
Masonic lodge near by. As Washington raised the 
book to his lips, the chancellor waved his hand to the 

1 Frcnu an enyraviiii/ in the New York Historical Society's rooms. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 197 

multitude below and cried, " Long live George Washing- 
ton, President of these United States." To the repeated 
shouts, the President bowed, while the artillery made 
the building reecho with its salute. 

Retiring within the Senate chamber, the President 
read his inaugural address, which would constitute 
about a column in a modern newspaper. It declared a 
conviction of his lack of qualification for the high office, 
but promised his best efforts and begged for cooperation 
and harmony. One of the senators in a critical way 
wrote in his journal: "The great man was agitated 
and embarrassed more than ever he was by the levelled 
cannon or pointed musket. He trembled and several 
times could scarce make out to read, though it must be 
supposed he had often read it before. . . . He was 
dressed in deep brown, with metal buttons, with an 
eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and sword." ^ 

Since Trinity had not yet been rebuilt after the " great 
fire " of 1776, the entire official body next marched out 
to St. Paul's Chapel, where service was performed by 
Bishop Provost. The President was then escorted to 
the Franklin house. In the evening, the streets were so 
crowded with citizens to see the fireworks and trans- 
parent paintings at the Battery that the presidential 
party was obliged to abandon the carriages, which 
brought it down town, and to walk home on foot. The 
inauguration ceremonies were now closed, and the Pres- 
ident was free to adjust his time to his public and his 
private life and to take up matters of state with Con- 
gress. In the absence of all precedent it is remarkable 

1 William Maclay's " Journal " has been printed several times. He was 
from Pennsylvania, and later became opposed to the administration. 



198 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

that the complicated machinery of the new government 
should be started with so little friction. 

The adjustment of minor matters caused more annoy- 
ance than weighty affairs. Following English example, 
the Senate was referred to as the "upper house," -^ and 
since it sustained an advisory relation with the Presi- 
dent in treaties and appointments, it assumed an air 
of superiority. It excluded visitors from its debates, 
refused to publish its proceedings, and ordered the 
House when it had passed a measure to send it up by its 
chief clerk with numerous obeisances. The more dem- 
ocratic House declared that if its chief clerk were 
required to take a measure to the Senate, then no meas- 
ure would be received from that body save at the hand 
of its secretary. While this very momentous question 
was under discussion, a bill passed one branch and 
was sent to the other by a messenger, thus establishing 
a custom which has held to this day. The first measure 
to pass both houses and to become a law by the Presi- 
dent's signature determined the form of oath which each 
officer of the government was required by the Constitu- 
tion to take. It passed almost two months after Con- 
gress began. 

There had been a president or chairman of the old 
Continental Congress ; there never had been a Presi- 
dent of the United States. What title could be invented 
worthy of the dignity of his position and yet consistent 
with a free government } At one time the Senate had 
practically decided upon " His High Mightiness the 

^ Since the Senate occupied a room in the second story of the tem- 
porary capilol, both in New Yori-c and Philadelphia, some wag has sug- 
gested this fact as a derivation of the term " upper house." 



GEORGE WASHINGTON- 1 99 

President of these United States and the Protector of its 
Liberties " ; but while the debates were going on, the 
President arrived and was addressed as " Mr. President," 
and thus the matter was settled.^ 

Madison introduced a bill to put a tax on foreign 
goods coming into, the country, such as wines, tea, 
coffee, and sugar, by which some money would be put 
into the needy treasury. He preferred this as a more 
indirect tax than an excise which Congress could also 
levy. The manufacturers of Baltimore had already 
sent in a list of various articles made in that city with an 
appeal for " that relief which, in your wisdom^ may 
appear proper." Private interests were thus early at the 
door clamoring for legislation. The merchants and 
manufacturers of New York followed with a similar 
petition. Then came the shipbuilders of Philadelphia 
asking a discriminating tonnage for home-built vessels. 
The blacksmiths, tailors, and other workmen of Boston 
petitioned for the free entry of raw materials and the 
protection of home manufacture by such an impost as 
would exclude importations of these goods.^ The mem- 
bers rapidly took sides with the interests they repre- 
sented and soon both houses were engaged in contests 
over duties on fish, hemp, salt, iron, nails, paper, coal, etc. 
So rapidly did this revenue measure assume a protec- 

1 This apparently important question caused much discussion in the 
newspapers. One stanza ran : 

" Fame stretched her wings and with the trumpet blew, 
'Great Washington is near; what praise is due? 
What title shall he have?' .She paused, and said : 
'Not one. His name alone strikes every title dead.' " 

2 These petitions may be found in the " American State Papers, 
Finance," Vol. I. 



200 THE MElY WHO MADE THE NAT/0 IV 

tive aspect that the title of the completed bill reads, 
" An act for the encouragement and protection of man- 
ufactures." In addition to this revenue measure, this 
extra session of the new Congress passed laws estab- 
lishing the Departments of State, War, and Treasury, 
organized the revenue service, and proposed twelve 
amendments to the Constitution, ten of which were 
eventually ratified by the required three-fourths of the 
states. It was six months in session and passed twenty- 
seven acts and five joint resolutions. 

The President took no part in the initiation of these 
legislative measures. He rode down frequently to the 
Federal Hall, being announced by the doorkeeper 
when he appeared at cither house, and sitting in the 
seat of the presiding officer temporarily vacated for 
him. The relation of the executive to the legislative 
branch of the government was being determined day 
by day. One day the President appeared in the Senate 
with Knox, Secretary of War, to talk over an Indian 
treaty, but the whole matter was referred to a com- 
mittee. The President started up and exclaimed, "This 
defeats every purpose of my coming here," and soon 
after withdrew. The relations of the two branches 
were not to be patterned after Great Britain. 

Precedents were forming for the social as well as the 
official life of the new chief magistrate. Tuesday after- 
noon of each week, from three to four o'clock, calls of 
courtesy would be received, and on Friday evenings a 
kind of social levee would be held. On Thursdays 
state dinners were to be given. The President, it was 
understood, was not bound to return calls. With these 
stated functions and the special occasions, the first daws 



GEORGE IVASHINGTOIV 201 

of the President in New York were busy ones. He 
attended the commencement exercises of Columbia Col- 
lege ; the ball of the Dancing Assembly, where he 
danced vvith several ladies ; the theatre, where he saw 
the "School for Scandal" and a farce called "Old 
Soldier." Soon after, the French minister gave a ball 
at which the men in one set of cotillon dancers were 
dressed in the French uniform and those in another in 
the old continental blue and buff. The ladies wore 
ribbons of corresponding colors. An elaborate system 
of visits and addresses was carried on with each house 
of Congress. The new minister from the Netherlands 
presented his credentials. 

After one month of this routine, Washington set off 
one Wednesday morning in a barge for Elizabethtown 
to meet Mrs. Washington. On her journey, she had 
lodged in Philadelphia with Mrs. Robert Morris and 
was now accompanied by that lady, whose husband was 
in New York as a senator from Pennsylvania. At 
Elizabethtown, the united company embarked on a 
barge, as Washington had done a month before, and 
was rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms across 
the bay to Peck's slip, where a crowd of people awaited 
a view of " Lady Washington." She was soon at home 
in the Franklin house. According to the newspapers, 
"the principal ladies of the city have, with the earliest 
attention and respect, paid their devoirs to the amiable 
consort of our beloved President, viz. the Lady of His 
Excellency the Governor, Lady Sterling, Lady Mary 
Watts, Lady Kitty Ducr, La ]\hxrchioncss de Brchan, 
the Ladies of the Most Hon. Mr. Langdon, and the 
Most Hon. Mr. Ualton, the Mayoress, Mrs. Livingston 



202 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

of Clermont, Mrs. Chancellor Livingston, the Miss Liv- 
ingstons, Lady Temple, Madam de la Forest, Mrs. Mont- 
gomery, Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Gerry, Mrs. 
Edgar, Mrs. M'Comb, Mrs. Lynch, Mrs. Houston, Mrs. 
Griffin, Mrs. Provost, the Miss Bayards, and a great 
number of other respectable characters." ^ 

In a few days a dinner was given en fauiille to a few 
prominent ofificials, when a boiled leg of mutton was 
served according to Washington's custom of having but 
one dish. A glass of wine followed. On these occa- 
sions the silver service was massive, being valued at 
thirty thousand dollars, but the menu was very simple. 
On a great occasion it included soup, fish roasted and 
boiled, meats, gammon, fowls, etc. For dessert, "apple- 
pies, puddings, etc. ; then iced creams, jellies, etc. ; then 
water-melon, musk-melons, apples, peaches, nuts." The 
middle of the table was garnished with small images 
and artificial flowers. On such occasions there was a 
heavy solemnity. After the cloth had been removed, 
the President filled his glass and drank the health by 
name of each one present. All imitated him. Then 
the ladies withdrew, and the men attempted some con- 
versation. At one time the President kept a nut-pick 
when the cloth was taken away, but used it to drum on 
the edge of the table. Soon all went upstairs to drink 
coffee. Becoming President could not make a social 
star out of the reserved Washington. 

As rapidly as Congress created the executive depart- 
ments, the President called to their heads the most able 
men. Hamilton, his former aide, became the Secretary 

^ In the growth of democracy in America, we have sloughed off much 
of this class tendency inherited from the old world. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 203 

of the Treasury ; Knox, who had been Secretary of 
War under the Articles of Confederation, was continued 
in that office. Randolph, of Virginia, was made Attor- 
ney-general, and Osgood, of Massachusetts, Postmaster- 
general, although the latter office was not considered of 
cabinet rank for several years to come. Jay continued as 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, until the following March, 
when Jefferson, recently returned from three years' ser- 
vice as minister to France, became the Secretary of State, 
as the department was thenceforth called. Jay, who had 
been given a choice of any office by the President, asked 
to be made head of the Supreme Court when that body 
should be created. 

After consulting his cabinet upon the propriety of 
making a journey into New England, " for the purpose 
of acquiring a knowledge of the country and determin- 
ing the temper and disposition of the inhabitants toward 
the new government," the President set out about the 
middle of October, Hamilton, Knox, and Jay accom- 
panying him a few miles out of the city. His party was 
composed of himself, one aide. Colonel Jackson, and 
Secretary Lear, together with six servants. He passed 
through various cities to Hartford, being received with 
many honors on the way. Thence he went by Worces- 
ter to Cambridge, where he was met by the militia, given 
a salute from two land batteries and from the French 
squadron in the harbor, while the bells of Boston were 
rung. As he entered that city with Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Samuel Adams, he found the workingmen drawn 
up under appropriate banners to welcome him. In front 
of the State House was an arch across the street bear- 
ing the inscription "To the Man who unites all hearts" 



204 THE MEX WHO MADE THE NAT/OX 

and "To Columbia's favorite son." Side panels com- 
memorated the relief of Boston by Washington in 1776. 
Entering the State House and appearing upon a balcony 
supported by thirteen pillars, the President was greeted 
by a vast concourse of people in the street below. An 
ode was sung by a choir stationed on the arch, and the 
trades procession passed in review.^ 

John Hancock, governor of Massachusetts, had sent 
forward a messenger requesting Washington to dine 
with him, but now sent word that he was too ill to call 
on the guest. Washington was resolved to stand strictly 
on his dignity as President and therefore dined at his 
lodgings at the "Widow IngersoH's. which is a very 
decent and good house." The following day being Sun- 
day, the President, according to his custom on this jour- 
ney, attended the Episcopal church in the morning and 
the Congregational church in the afternoon. Between 
the two meetings. Governor Hancock appeared with the 
statement that "he w^as still indisposed; but as it had 
been suggested that he expected to receive the visit from 
the President which he knew was improper, he had re- 
solved at all haz'ds to pay his Compliments to-day." So 
ended probably the first contest between state rights 
and the federal Union. 

P'our days were spent in Boston in receiving and reply- 
ing to addresses, visiting the French fleet, and in dining 
and receiving the public. The President next went 
through Salem and Newburyport to Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire. He was surprised at the different recep- 
tions to see so many ladies with black hair, "in greater 

1 The illustration on the opposite page of the arch in front of the State 
House is taken from the Massachuselts Magazine, January, 1790. 



206 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/OAT 

proportion and blacker than are usually seen in the 
Southern states." In Portsmouth harbor he fished for 
cod and caught two. Turning back at Portsmouth, he 
visited Lexington battlefield, skirted Boston, and hurried 
through Connecticut, being welcomed at New York with 
a federal salute after an absence of four weeks. He had 
studiously avoided entering the state of Rhode Island 
because it had not yet come into the Union by ratifying 
the Constitution. When that action was taken the fol- 
lowing summer, the President made a special tour of the 
state. ^ 

The six weeks ensuing before the first of January 
were spent in receptions, attending the theatre and danc- 
ing assemblies, sitting to painters and sculptors, and in 
routine executive business. The chief event was the 
first public Thanksgiving Day by order of the President's 
proclamation, at the request of Congress made before 
adjournment. The last Thursday in November was se- 
lected, and the President attended services at St. Paul's, 
although the weather was stormy and the congregation 
small. New Year's Day brought a large official recep- 
tion at the President's house. A week later the first 
regular session of the first Congress opened with a visit 
from the President. He rode down to the Federal Hall 
in his coach, preceded by Humphreys and Jackson of 
his staff upon white horses and in full uniform, and fol- 
lowed by Secretaries Lear and Nelson in a chariot, and 
the members of his cabinet each in a carriage. There 
was a long ceremony of bowing and making addresses 

1 No coercion was used toward Rhode Island, liut it was understood that 
the relief from tonnage duties, which had been granteil vessels ol that stcte 
by Congress, woul 1 not be continued much longer. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 20/ 

and replies. In the evening the President received at 
home, clad in a new suit, the cloth and buttons for which 
he had ordered at Hartford on his eastern journey. Mem- 
ories of the Revolutionary "associations" had not en- 
tirely passed away. In February, the President's family 
left the Franklin house and occupied the Macomb house 
on Broadway below Trinity, much nearer to the Federal 
Hall. This was leased for one year. In March, the re- 
built Trinity was ready for consecration. Washington 
and his family attended, sitting in the Presidential pew, 
which was richly ornamented and covered with a canopy. 

By the middle of August, Congress was ready to 
adjourn, after a busy and profitable session. It had 
listened to the reports on tlie finances which it had 
ordered Secretary Hamilton to prepare, and had adopted 
his suggestion that all the debts of the states and of the 
Union be assumed and paid by the United States. In 
order to get the debts of the states included, Hamilton 
had made a bargain with Jefferson that the national 
capital should be located eventually on the banks of 
the Potomac, where every Virginian had long hoped it 
would be. The votes of the Pennsylvania members were 
necessary to get this agreement through Congress, and 
the leaders had to allow the capital to stop ten years in 
Philadelphia on its road south. This satisfied the lodg- 
ing-house keepers of that city and gave them some 
chance of keeping the capital permanently.^ 

The New York people, who had spent so much money 
on the Federal Hall and had begun a fine President's 

^ This struggle for the seat of government had continued for many 
years, and resembled closely a tight for spoils. Philadelphia, Harrisburg, 
Mori'istown, and Annapolis were considerefl at different times. 



208 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION" 

mansion, protested vigorously ; but they had to abide 
by the decision, and prepared to bid farewell to the 
departing President, who would return to Philadelphia 
instead of New York for the next session. It was 
many years before the growing interests of the country 
demanded the permanent residence of the President at 
the seat of government between sessions of Congress. 

According to the newspapers, Washington " took 
opportunity to express his great reluctance at leaving 
the city and those who had taken so much pains to treat 
him, not only with dignified respect, but wqth reverence 
and esteem, as the Father and Patron of the United 
States. Mrs. Washington also seemed hurt at the idea 
of bidding adieu to these hospitable shores." A proces- 
sion composed of Governor Clinton and staff, the cabi- 
net, Chief Justice Jay, the city corporation, clergy and 
citizens, escorted the President and Mrs. Washington to 
the wharf, where the lines opened and the distinguished 
couple passed through to a barge, rowed by thirteen 
men in white jackets and black caps, which soon landed 
them at Powles Hook (now Jersey City). The party 
also included the two grandchildren of Mrs. Washington, 
Major Jackson, Secretary Nelson, two maids, four white 
and four black servants, and sixteen horses. They 
remained four days in Philadelphia, Mrs. Washington 
being indisposed. The President dined with several 
companies and attended a Fete Cliauipctre and banquet 
at Gray's pleasure gardens on the Schuylkill. At Balti- 
more another reception awaited them, and at George- 
town the Potomac company was assembled to consult 
with Washington about their work. The entire journe}'. 
had been made in twelve days. 



GV;( )J^GE U'ASH/NGIV.V 



209 




The Presidknt's House, I'Hii.ADki.ruiA 



Before the last of November, Washington was back 
in Philadelphia to attend the second session of the first 
Congress. The city, not to be outdone by New York, 
had provided him a large double house on Market street, 
owned by Robert 
Morris.^ Every 
Tuesday afternoon, 
a reception was 
held in the dining 
room, from which 
the chairs were re- 
moved. The Presi- 
dent was 

" clad in black vel- 
vet ; his hair in full 
dress, powdered and 
gathered behind in a large silk bag ; yellow gloves on his 
hands ; holding a cocked hat with a cockade in it, and the 
edges adorned with a black feather about an inch deep. He 
wore knee and shoe buckles ; and a long sword with a wrought 
and polished steel hilt, which appeared at his left hip ; the 
coat worn over the sword, so that the hilt, and the part below 
the coat behind, were in view. The scabbard was of white 
polished leather. He stood always in front of the fireplace 
with his face towards the door of entrance. . . . He received 
his visitors with a dignified bow, while his hands were so dis- 
posed of as to indicate that the salutation was not to be accom- 
panied with shaking hands. This ceremony never occurred in 

^ Philadelphia also hc-gan the erection of a permanent residence for 
the President with the hope of retaining the seat of government. The 
building, a cut of which is shown ahove, was never occupied by Wash- 
ington, since the furnishing would probably be at his expense. It was 
afterward used by the University of Pennsylvania. 
P 



2IO THE ME.V WHO MADE THE NATION' 

these visits, even with his most near friends, that no distinc- 
tions might be made." ^ 

The doors were opened at three and were closed fif- 
teen minutes later. The President then made a tour 
of the room, speaking personally to every guest. Return- 
ing to his place, he was bidden adieu by each one, and 
the function was ended. The alarm of those who feared 
a monarchy was much increased by these receptions. A 
senator pronounced them "a feature of royalty, certainly 
anti-republican. This certainly escapes nobody. The 
royalists glory in it as a point gained. The republicans 
are borne down by fashion and a fear of being charged 
with a want of respect to General Washington. If there 
is treason in the wish, I retract it, but would to God this 
same Washington were in heaven!"'-^ Thornton, later 
secretary of the British legation, described the President 
as affecting state and not a little flattered because the 
British minister always wore full dress in calling upon 
him. He also noted that he travelled in a " kingly " 
style. "On his last journey he foundered five horses, and 
I am informed that his secretaries are not admitted into 
his carriage, but stand with their horse's bridles in their 
hands till he is seated, and then mount and ride before 
his carriage." Another English visitor wrote home that 
" he has very few who are on terms of intimate and 
unreserved friendship ; and what is worse he is less 
beloved in his own State (Virginia) than in any jxu-t of 
the United States." 

In truth, political parties were beginning to arise along 
this cleavage of the old aristocracy and the new democ- 

1 From Sullivan's " Public Mtn of the Revolution," page I20. 

2 Maclay, of Pennsylvania, in his "Journal." 



GEORGE WASHINGTON- 211 

racy. The country was too new to institute issues, 
and therefore reflected the old-world struggle between 
aristocratic England and the new democratic France. 
Washington's descent from a Yorkshire great grand- 
father, his environment as one of the wealthiest men in 
the United States, and his naturally reserved tempera- 
ment would have arrayed him on the side of England, 
even if Hamilton, born in the British West Indies and 
a cool calculator of men, had not urged that side upon 
him. On the contrary, Jefferson, of Welsh descent, never 
financially prosperous, a philosopher who believed in the 
innate goodness of man and had hopes for his future, 
would have been on the side of France even if he had 
not caught the fever of the Revolution while serving as 
minister to that country. Thus political parties, bound 
to arise among thinking men, found leaders in the Presi- 
dent's cabinet, through the antipodal natures of two men. 
Washington, unwilling to engage the young re- 
public in another war, issued a proclamation of neu- 
trality between the warring England and France, and 
the storm broke forth. He was accused of ingratitude 
to the country which had aided America in the Revolu- 
tionary struggle ; of yielding to the influence of the 
British monarchy ; of assuming by royal edict the 
power of declaring war or peace which belonged to 
Congress. He restrained his Virginia temper under 
these vicious attacks from the French sympathizing 
papers of Philadelphia, but to Henry Lee he wrote : 
" For the result, as it respects myself, I care not; for I 
have a consolation within no earthly efforts can deprive 
me of, and that is that neither ambitious nor interested 
motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of 



212 THE MEN- WHO MADE THE NATIOM 

malevolence, therefore, however barbed and well-pointed, 
can never reach the most vulnerable part of me ; though, 
whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually 
aimed." 

It was too late to think of withdrawing, for, yielding 
to the manifestations of approval of the people in a 
southern trip which extended as far as Georgia, and 
supported by the unanimous opinion of his cabinet, 
Washington had accepted a second term and had again 
received every electoral vote. His enforced restraint 
of the French minister to America, " Citizen " Genet, 
brought out a scurrilous broadside called the funeral of 
King Washington, where the President was pictured on 
a guillotine. Jefferson said that at a subsequent cabinet 
meeting where this cartoon was very injudiciously intro- 
duced by the Secretary of War, the President got into a 
passion and declared " that he had never repented but 
once having taken a second term and that was every 
moment since ; that he had rather be in his grave than 
in his present position ; that he had rather be on his 
farm than to made Emperor of the world; and yet they 
were charging him with wanting to be a King." 

In 1795 Jay, who had been appointed special envoy 
to England, brought back a treaty with that country, 
which furnished to the French sympathizers a further 
proof of what they called the English bias of the aristo- 
cratic President. They declared that he had been cap- 
tured by British gold ; that he was a hired employee of 
the king of England ; and pictured the oblivion which 
awaited him and his confidential adviser, Hamilton. 
" Along with the awful sentence of execration which 
awaits that ambitious Catiline, who has been the jirinci- 



GEOR GE 1 1 'ASHING TO IV 



213 



pal adviser and chief promoter of all your measures, the 
name of Washington will descend with him to oblivion." 
" Stript of the mantle of infallibility . . . you will ap- 
pear before them a frail mortal, whose passions and 
weaknesses are like those of other men. Your voice 
may have been heard when it called to virtue and glory, 
but it will be lost in the tempest of popular fury when- 
ever it shall speak the language of lawless ambition." 

When the President was at the capital, Philadelphia, 
the opposition papers compared him with Caesar Augus- 
tus, Cromwell, George III., Louis XVI., Lafayette, the 
Duke of Richmond, and Lord North ; when he made a 
temporary visit to Mount Vernon they sneered that "We, 
the people, are now on a tour with the Constitution." 

Suspicion attended the regular celebration of the 
President's birthday by artillery salutes, parades, and 



IL 



TjTjr, 

T///\ /'HKSJj>KX'r's un<r/i xfisrrr. 



/.// 



//. . /,„/./„//,.„. 



■ y./,,. /„„., 






calls, with a ball in the evening by the Dancing Assem- 
bly. Many thought the ceremonials attending the open- 
ing and closing of sessions of Congress, which were 
borrowed from England, too aristocratic for a republic. 



214 "^HE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Others criticised the President for attending the South- 
wark theatre or Rickett's circus, especially since " The 
President's March " had been composed to be played on 
such occasions, and the audience was likely to applaud 
as the President and suite entered his decorated box. 

Much of the President's official and even private life 
was borrowed from Europe or from the royal colonial 
governors. Jt was offensive only to those persons 
who mistook the American political Revolution for a 
social revolution. There was never any attempt to 
level social distinctions nor any promise to secure social 
happiness. 

As the days went quietly by and the people returned 
to public order and a proper recognition of their civic 
duties, the avenues of trade were opened, commercial 
friction ceased under national control, and for the first 
time Fortune smiled on the young nation. Its first 
President had successfully avoided being drawn into the 
foreign wars and had established for the United States 
that unique position she was to occupy for almost one 
hundred years — a neutral nation. When the presiden- 
tial machinery had been successfully tried a third time, 
it cjuieted the voices of those who feared a return to 
monarchy. The assured success of the new Constitu- 
tion may be dated from this time. A permanent form 
of Union had been created; it had begun through its 
chief representative to gain the affections of the people ; 
it had yet to gain sufficient power from its creators and 
its later rivals — the states. 

Nevertheless, political abuse followed Washington to 
the end of his administration. Having clearly demon- 
strated to the people in a " Farewell Address " his 



GEORGE IVASHIiYGTOX 21$ 

determination to retire, and satisfied with the election oi 
Vice-President Jolm Adams as his successor, he received 
numerous addresses during the closing days, and gave a 
farewell dinner at which he brought tears to many eyes 
by drinking for the last time as a public man the health 
of his guests. On Saturday, March 4, 1797, he 
attended the hall of the House of Representatives on 
the corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, to see his suc- 
cessor take the oath of office. When the crowd dis- 
persed, so many followed the ex-President that the new 
President seemed by contrast to walk home unattended. 

Some who thus accompanied him may have wished 
to rebuke an editorial in the Philadelphia Aurora of 
that day beginning, " Lord, now lettest thou thy ser- 
vant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salva- 
tion." It suggested the appropriateness of this text 
because " the man who is the source of all the misfor- 
tunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with 
his fellow-citizens." "When a retrospect is taken of 
the Washington administration for eight years, it is the 
subject of the greatest astonishment that a single indi- 
vidual should have cankered the principles of republi- 
canism in an enlightened people just emerged from the 
gulph of despotism, and should have carried his designs 
against the public safety so far, as to put in jeopardy 
its very existence." 

In the New York Minerva, Noah Webster insisted that 
the writer of that article could not pass through the 
eastern states without at least one coat of tar and feath- 
ers ; and one impetuous defender of the President pub- 
licly whipped the editor for printing the libel. A few 
weeks later, far removed from such abuse, the serene 



2l6 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



Washington could write from Mount Vernon, " To make 
and sell a little flour annually, to repair houses (going 

fast to ruin), to 
build one for 
the security of 
my papers of a 
public nature, 
and to amuse 
myself in agri- 
cult u r a 1 and 
rural pursuits, 
will constitute 
employment 
for the few 
years I have 
to remain on 
this terrestial 
globe." 

In writing 
these lines, 
Washington lit- 
tle thought that 
two years more would bring that fatal ride in the cold 
rain, the sad result of which stirred to its depths the 
national heart which he had done so much to create. 
Appropriate exercises were held in the chief cities and 
in many villages. According to custom, a funeral cor- 
tege passed through the streets in Philadelphia^ and 
New York, although the remains of the first President 
were laid awav within the CTounds of his Mount Vernon. 



aever want Bioorraphers, Euioaists o 
tlifconans. 

JOHN ADAMS. 
United States, ) 
Dec. 22, 1799. ) 



WASHINGTON ENTOMBED. 
George Town, Dec. 20. 

On Wednesday- laft, the mortal part ofj 
V/ASHINGTON the Great— the Falhei 
of his Country and the Friend of man, was] 
configned to the tomb, with solemn honor$| 
and funeral pomp. 

A multitude of persons affembled, frorrl 
many miles round, at Mount Vernon, the] 
choice abode and laft residence of the 11- 
luftrious chief. There were the groves- 
the spacious avenues, the beautiful aoiij 
sublime scenes, the noble manfion — but 
alas! the auguft inhabitant was now hoi 
more. That great soul was gone. Hi:.| 
mortal part was there indeed ;but ah! h)\\f 



1 The illustration of the funeral procession is from Janson's "Stranger in 
America." The new spaper clipping is from the Ulster County, N.Y., Gazette. 



CHAPTER VII 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE EXPONENT OF DEMOCRACY 

"They [the pieces written by Hampden] contain the true 
principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was as real a revo- 
lution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was 
in its form ; not effected indeed by the sword as that, but by 
the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of 
the people." — Jefferson to Judge Spencer Roan, 1819. 

It is impossible to say when the conviction that a 
conflict must ensue between the state and general gov- 
ernments first became fixed. During the contest be- 
tween the large and the small states in the Philadelphia 
Convention, a few delegates held "private meetings to 
protect and preserve, if possible, the existence and 
essential rights of all the states and the liberty and 
freedom of their citizens." In the New York state 
convention, Hamilton pronounced such an idea chi- 
merical, but Lansing replied : " I am, however, per- 
suaded that an hostility will exist between them. This 
was a received opinion in the late convention at Phila- 
delphia." In the Virginia state convention, Patrick 
Henry predicted the overthrow of state supremacy be- 
cause the new Constitution destroyed the Confederacy. 
The attorney-general of Massachusetts found a danger- 
ous intention in " the consolidation of the Union," as 
advocated in the letter of the Philadelphia Convention, 

218 



THOMAS JEFFERSOX 



2 10 



which accompanied the 
finished document to the 
Congress. 

Several of the states, in 
ratifying the Constitution, 
had expressly confined the 
central agency to the pow- 
ers given it in that agree- 
ment and had reserved 
the right to withdraw from 
the Union if the central 
government should exceed 
that authority. How ne- 
cessity gradually made 
impossible the latter pro- 
vision is to be told in the 
later pages. The former 
stipulation was impossible 
from the first. The grow- 
ing oak cannot be bound 
by bands covering it from 
base to crown. 

Perhaps the first depar- 
ture from a rigid observ- 
ance of the powers actually 
given it, was when the 
United States created a 
bank as advocated by 
Hamilton. Search as one 
would, the word "bank" 
did not appear in the Con- 
stitution. Hence the sum- 







,- 






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\ 




^^"1 <p 








■ * 


j ' 






1 




^ 






i 




,i 








>\ 









'% 








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h 








% 




' S^ 




^ 




•< 


\ 


^'^ 






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^ 


X 






^^ 


"3 






i 


« 






% 


i 


I 




^" ' w^ 


i 




^5| 




i 


^^ 


\ 

V 




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*rv. 









220 THE MEX WHO MADE THE N' ATI ON 

ming up or concluding provision "to make all laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the foregoing powers " was declared elastic 
enough to cover the bank. It has done service many 
times since, and the actions under it sanctioned as 
" implied " powers in contradistinction to the expressed 
powers. 

The masses were not interested in the bank question, 
but a subsequent action of the central government 
affecting citizenship attracted more attention, arrayed 
thinking men, and clearly defined the attitude of parties 
on this subject. Certain of the editors who attacked 
the administration as described in the preceding chap- 
ter were men who had recently come from foreign 
countries.^ Goaded by their assaults, the Federalists in 
1798 raised the period of residence required for citizen- 
ship to fourteen years, gave power to President Adams 
to banish dangerous aliens, and provided fine and im- 
prisonment for any one writing or printing " any false 
scandalous and malicious writings " upon the govern- 
ment or its higher officers. The Constitution had left 
the question of citizenship to the states. Here was 
plainly an infringement on their rights. Where could 
an agency be found to protect the citizens of the states 
against these assaults of the Union } Later, Jefferson 
said: "The leading republicans^ in Congress found 
themselves of no use there, browbeaten as they were by 

1 Party spirit, just arising, produced an encDunter in the House of 
Representatives, an old cartoon of which is shown herewith. 

■■^ Those who opposed the Federalist or aristocratic centralizing party- 
were called Republicans by their great leader, Jefferson. He objected to 
using the word " Democratic," borrowed from (he Democratic clubs of 
P'rance. Some modern writers call the party the Democratic-Republican. 



i I 







222 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

a bold overwhelming majority. They concluded to re- 
tire from that field, take a stand in their state legisla- 
tures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The 
Alien and Sedition laws furnished the particular occa- 
sion." Securing the cooperation of Madison, Jefferson ar- 
ranged to have the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky 
protest against this assumption of power and violation 
of the contract between the states and the Union. ^ 

Regardless of these legislative protests and of the 
petitions which poured into the ensuing Congress for 
the repeal of these acts, the Federalists in the rage for 
war with France raised the regular army to thirteen 
thousand men ^ and prepared further to develop "the 
rising navy of America." It was planned to add six 
frigates, twelve sloops, and six small vessels to the Con- 
stellation, the Constitution, the President, and the 
United States, and to raise the marine corps to nine 
hundred. President Adams was authorized to buy 
private vessels or those built by subscriptions. For 

' Since the legislatures of the states voiced the sentiments of the people, 
it was customary for them to send memorials to Congress. Jefferson 
framed the protest ado])ted by Kentucky, and Madison that by Virginia. 
They declared that the Union was a compact created by the slates without 
a central judge, and each party must be its own judge; that in the Alien 
and Sedition acts the Union had surpasseil its powers, and that the states 
were in duty bound to interpose. The following year (1799), the Kentucky 
legislature went much farther, and declared the right of the state to make 
null and void any unconstitutional act of the Union. Only a few states 
responded t.j these aj^peals, and these generally unfavoral)lv. 

- Washin'^ton, who was called to the head of the jirovisional army, 
was hailed in a ballad of the day: 

" l')Ut hark ! the invading f )e alarms, 
Res]3onsive cannons rattle; 
And Washington again in arms 
Directs the storm of battle." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 223 

these unusual expenditures, he was permitted to borrow 
five million dollars, two millions of which were to be 
repaid from the proceeds of a direct tax levied on land, 
dwellings, and slaves. 

' The war spirit aroused by the treatment of the 
American envoys in France ^ seemed to sustain these 
expenditures. " Millions for defence, not one cent for 
tribute " furnished enough sentiment ; but when the 
practical payment of the taxes began, opposition was 
manifest among the common people. One more score 
was laid up against the aristocrats who had always been 
opposed to France. To Jefferson the protests of the 
people were an assurance that no set of men would ever 
be allowed to turn the government under the Constitu- 
tion far from its real intent without incurring their dis- 
pleasure and a removal from power. To an old friend 
he wrote: "The Spirit of 1776 is not dead. It is only 
slumbering. The body of the American people is sub- 
stantially republican." ^ He tried to rally public senti- 
ment by gentle means. He sent pamphlets containing 
criticisms on the Federalist measures to his friends to 
distribute, but not to "sound men." "It is the sick 
who need the medicine, and not the well. Do not let 
my name appear in the matter." He was Vice-President 
at this time. The lawyers in North Carolina he called 

1 Marshall, Pinckncy, and Clerry had been sent ovei- to adjust the 
claims of the United States merchants because of French depredations on 
our commerce, and to secure a cessation of the practice. The hints they 
received that a gift must precede negotiations were made public when 
they published their correspondence, with the substitution of the letters 
X, Y, and Z for the names of the writers. .\ sudden rage against France 
followed. 

- The c|uutations from Jefferson in this chapter are taken from Ford's 
"Jefferson's Works," in ten volumes. 



224 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

"Tories." Therefore, "The medicine for that state 
must be mild & secretly administered." He had 
prophesied, "If we can keep quiet, therefore, the tide 
now turning will take a steady & proper direction." 
In 1799, he could say of New York, "The public 
opinion in this state is rapidly coming round" and "a 
wonderful and rapid change is taking place in Penn- 
sylvania, Jersey, & N. York. Congress is daily plied 
with petitions against the alien & sedition laws & 
standing armies." 

As the election of 1800 came on, and the Federalists 
pushed through their final place-making scheme of form- 
ing a set of circuit courts, Jefferson wrote to a corre- 
spondent that perhaps modesty ought to forbid him 
saying anything on the election question ; and that his 
private gratifications would be served by being left at 
home. " If anything supersedes- this propensity, it is 
merely the desire to see this government brought back 
to its republican principles." When a sufficient number 
of electors had been chosen to insure the defeat of 
President Adams and the Federalists, Jefferson looked 
upon it not as a personal victory, nor yet as a victory 
for a party, but as the revolt of the people, the return to 
first principles, and the rescue of the country. In ask- 
ing Livingston to accept a cabinet position, he said : 
" Come forward then, my dear Sir, and give us the aid 
of your talents & the weight of your character towards 
the new establishment of republicanism : I say its new 
establishment ; for hitherto we have only seen it's 
travestie." 

This cabinet making received a rude shcK'k, as the 
completion of the choice of electors drew near, by the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 22$ 

fear that there would be no election. According to 
the Constitution, each elector placed two names upon 
his ballot, and the name receiving the highest number 
was to be President and the next Vice-President. 
Seventy-three electors had written " Thomas Jefferson " 
and " Aaron Burr " on their ballots. Sixty-five had 
written "John Adams" and sixty-four of these had also 
written " Charles Pinckney." Being tied, neither Jeffer- 
son nor Burr was elected President. The framers of the 
Constitution, although perhaps not foreseeing this very 
contingency, had provided for a possible hitch in the 
electoral machinery by sending contested elections to 
the House of Representatives for settlement. ^ When 
some of the Federalist members, after thirty-five bal- 
lots cast during the week, came over and voted for 
Jefferson against Burr, thus making him President, he 
saw in the action " a declaration of war on the part of 
this band." But he thought the patriotic part of the 
Federalists had been separated from their quondam 
leaders and were now "in a state of mind to be con- 
solidated with us if no intemperate measures on our 
part revolt them again." " If we can once more get 
social intercourse restored to it's pristine harmony, I 
shall believe we have not lived in vain." 

Jefferson was right in believing that a revolt of the 
people against ill-advised legislation had placed him in 
the presidential chair. It was the first political revolu- 
tion ; the first revolt of the lower social orders against 
the upper ; of the governed against the governing class ; 
of the "plain people" against the "well-born." It is 
true that Jefferson was a college-bred man and a large 

1 According to the Constitution, Art, II., Sec. I., 3. 



226 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION- 



SOLEMN ADDRESS^ 

T O 

CHRISTIANS & PATRIOTS, 

UPON THE 

APPROACHING ELECTION 

OF A 

Prefident of the United States: 

IN ANSWER TO A PAMPHLET, ENTITLED, 

" Serious Confidtrationsi' &c. 



land-holder ; that the democracy which supported him 
contained many of the aristocratic tendency ; but it 
was as nearly a democracy as the limited suffrage and 

the small emi- 
gration from 
Europe had 
made possible 
up to that time. 
However, Jef- 
ferson was mis- 
led in thinking 
that the entire 
people had de- 
serted their 
leaders and 
parties were at 
an end. In- 
deed, could he 
have journeyed 
into New Eng- 
land, the home 
of Federalism, 
he would have 
found great 
alarm over his 
election. 

The Feder- 

Campaign Document of iSoo i • ^ 1 V« A 

aiisrs naQ 

printed pamphlet after pamphlet before the election, 

1 One of these pamphlets bore the tillc, " Serious Considerations on the 
Election of a President." Another, "The Voice of Warning to Christians 
on the Knsuing Election of a President of the United States." 



NEW-YORK : 
PRINTED BY DAVID DENNISTON. 

i8oo. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 22; 

pointing out that in his writings Jefferson had declared 
that the mountains were formed first, and the rivers had 
then burst through them ; whereas, the Scriptures said 
clearly that the waters had been gathered in one place, 
and the dry land had appeared. They also quoted his 
doubts about the Deluge, since all the atmospheric 
waters would cover the earth only to a depth of fifty- 
two feet, and his saying that black men must have 
always been black and could not have been created in 
the image of God. He also had cast discredit on mis- 
sionary effort by saying that it did him no injury for his 
neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no gods ; that 
it neither broke his leg nor picked his pocket. Once 
when approached for a contribution, he had said that a 
broken church building was good enough for Him that 
was born in a manger. At another time he had par- 
taken of a public dinner on Sunday. 

Notwithstanding these warnings, the foolish people 
had made him their President. They would have for 
their ruler a man who believed that the only chosen 
people on earth were those who labored in the earth ; 
a philosopher who had invented a whirligig chair ; a 
scientist who had written a foohsh account of a monster 
which he called a mammoth ; a man of whom a for- 
eigner truly said that a good mechanical genius had 
been spoiled by making a Vice-President. The well- 
balanced administrations of Washington and Adams 
were to be exchanged for what would be a series of 
experiments under this "philosopher." His theories of 
government were well suited, it was declared, for some 
island savages, but not for civilized people. Rumors 
were not lacking that he would declare in his inaugural 



228 THE MEN WHO MADE J HE NAT/0 iV 

address a confiscation of property according to the ex- 
ample of his admired French Revolutionists. The 
memory of confiscated Tory estates was too recent in 
America to brand such rumors as idle tales. 

President Adams, cut off with one term, explained 
his defeat by saying that " a group of foreign liars, 
encouraged by a few ambitious native gentlemen, have 
discomfited the education, the talents, the virtues, and 
the property of the country." A Connecticut news- 
paper deplored the rise of democracy : " The Rulers 
are Servants of the People, is one of the favorite cant- 
ing doctrines of modern times. The true source of 
much mischief in the world — it is putting those into 
power who ought to be in servitude. ' Set a beggar on 
horseback and he will ride to the Devil ' says the prov- 
erb." 

Nor did the " well-born " Federalists refrain from 
mocking the new rulers. When a poet of the people 
wrote new words to the Federalist " Adams and Lib- 
erty " song containing such lines as, 

" Let all true Americans join heart and hand 
And witness this day their heart-felt satisfaction," 

a shout of ridicule went up from the Federalist critics. 
In derision they composed a new " Liberty song" for 
these yearners after liberty and reason, whose poets 
played havoc with metre and rhyme : 

'' Liberty's friends thus all learn to amalgamate. 
Freedom's volcanic explosion prepares itself; 
Despots shall bow to the fasces of Liberty, 
Reason and Philosophy, ' fiddledum, diddledum.' 
Peace and Fraternity, higgledy, piggledy, 
Higgledy, piggledy, ' fiddledum, diddleduni." " 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 229 

Under such circumstances, the inauguration and es- 
pecially the inaugural address were awaited with no 
little anxiety. The new city of Washington, buried in 
the woods, afforded little opportunity for ceremonies, 
yet sufficient for the new President, who wished to de- 
monstrate to the people by contrast how far republican 
simplicity had been changed into aristocratic ostentation. 
Four years before he had insisted that the news of his 
election as Vice-President should not be carried to him 
by gentlemen of distinction, but "indorsed to the post- 
master at Charlottesville" to be delivered at Monticello. 

" In addition to its usual populace," according to the 
newspapers, the "city" of Washington on the 4th of 
March, 1801, contained "a large body of citizens from 
adjacent districts." The Washington artillery ushered 
in the day with a salute. " At ten o'clock the Alex- 
andria company of infantry, attended by the artillery, 
paraded in front of the President's lodgings." At eleven 
o'clock. Burr took the oath as Vice-President before the 
assembled Senate. Soon after the President-elect, "at- 
tended by a number of his fellow-citizens, among whom 
were many members of Congress, repaired to the capitol. 
His dress was, as usual, that of a plain citizen without 
any distinctive badge of office." There was a discharge 
of artillery as he entered the building and another as 
he left it. Having entered the Senate chamber. Burr 
arose, and Jefferson occupied his seat. " After a few 
moments of silence," Jefferson arose and read his inau- 
gural address. Reseating himself for "a short period," 
he then walked to the secretary's desk and took the 
oath of office. At night there was a " pretty general 
illumination." 



230 THE MEN WHO MADE THE A'ATION' 

Compared with the inaugurations of Washington and 
Adams, these exercises were simple ; but they occurred 
under different environment. The woods surrounding 
the new capital did not offer as much possibility for 
display as did New York or Philadelphia. The story, 
widely circulated at the time, that Jefferson rode unat- 
tended to the capital and tied his horse to a tree near 
the spring was based to some extent on this contrast, 
but to a greater degree upon the desire to magnify 
democratic simplicity. The growth of party comity 
and the subsidence of partisan alarm is illustrated by 
comparing this inauguration with those of later times, 
when the incoming and outgoing presidents, although 
party enemies, occupy the same carriage in the pro- 
cession. President Adams, with one term to two of 
Washington, could not endure the ordeal and left the 
capital at four o'clock on the inauguration morning, 
having sent Mrs. Adams on a few days before. 

The death of a son a few weeks before, and a scurril- 
ous letter written by an enemy on the last day of his 
administration, combined to make his farewell to official 
life most unpleasant to remember. Maving " trotted the 
Bogs," to use his own expression, five hundred miles in 
fourteen days, he reached his home and became "the 
farmer of Stony field." ^ 

The inaugural address gave much comfort to the 
Federalists ; it gave little hope to the extreme Republi- 
cans. Instead of declaring a proscription of property, 
it insisted that the will of the majority must prevail, but 
must be rightful and reasonable, and that the minority 
should possess their equal rights which the laws must 

1 "The Works of John Atlams," Vol. XL, p. 364. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



231 



j:)rotect, and to violate which would be oppression. 
Where some thought that he would avow enmity to the 
existing government, he said, " I believe this, on the 
contrary, the 
strongest gov- 
ernment on 
e a r t h." ^ I n- 
stead of declar- 
ing attainder of 
treason upon 
his political op- 
ponents, he 
said: "We 
h a \' e called 
by different 
names brethren 
of the same 
principle. We 
are all Repub- 
licans; we are 
all Federal- 
ists." It was 
said in a Fed- 
eralist paper 
that some rabid 
Republicans, 
who had cut 
the legs from 



SPEECH 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED ST.\TE3, 

DELIVERED 

AT UIS INSTALHEST, 

Xi.ca 4, .301, 

AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. 

■WITH TRANStATIONS INTO THE 
FRENCH, ITALIAN, AND GERMAN TONGUES. 



PARIS, 
PRINTED AT THE ENGLISH PRESS. 



Title-page of Jefferson's Inaugural 
Address 



their boots in imitation of the style " coming over the 
ankle " as Jefferson wore them, were so disgusted with 
such peaceful and forgiving doctrine that they repaired 
to the outer portion of the capitol grounds and stitched 



232 THE MEN U'EIO MADE THE NATION 

the legs on again. A Massachusetts paper pronounced 
the address "pertinent, judicious, and conciliatory." 

The conciliatory spirit in which Jefferson entered 
upon his duties was the reflection of his high ideal of 
the presidency. He was to be the father of his people, 
anticipating their wants, careful of their rights, swaying 
them by love instead of force. The word " coercion " 
was to be stricken from the national vocabulary. But 
very early in his administration he was to learn that a 
President in fact is quite otherwise from a President in 
theory; that a part of the people as well as their leaders 
would remain in opposition to the administration. At 
first he wrote : " With the people I have hopes of 
effecting it \j.e. harmony]. Hut their Coryphaei are 
incurables. I expect little from them." Presently he 
noted " Hamiltonians, Essex-men and Revolutionary 
tories, etc.," who should have "tolerance but neither 
confidence nor power." 

Harmony could never be brought to the government 
with these opposing Federalists in possession of its 
offices. This thought grew upon Jefferson as the 
demand of his people for the positions of these aristo- 
crats increased to a clamor. The Federalist newspapers 
added to the fury by pointing out how President Adams 
"had taken pains to leave the several departments in 
the hands of men of the most distinguished talents and 
unquestionable patriotism." In comjileting this good 
work he "continued filling all the offices till nine o'clock 
of the night at twelve of which he was to go out of office 
himself," as Jefferson complained. But this partisan 
arrangement was not necessarily fixed ; it could be reme- 
died by the President removing the appointees. It was 



THOMAS JEFFERSON' 233 

the first time this question had arisen. The leading 
Republican papers did not doubt the right of displacing 
these aristocrats. "To retain such men in trust under 
such appointments would be political suicide, and the 
new administration would merit every affliction which 
could not but result from a sufferance of evil." 

When Jefferson had brought himself gradually to 
entering upon the "painful operation" of substituting 
at least one-half Republicans for FederaHsts,^ the latter 
began to alter the soft words which the inaugural address 
had called out. Newspapers printed lists of removals 
under the head, "We are all Republicans — We are all 
Federalists ! ! ! " When Jefferson petulantly assured 
demanding applicants that death gave him few vacancies 
to fill, the Federalists declared the assertion inhuman ; 
that he said, in fact, " My foes are in my way and I 
cannot wait the general operation of natural demise to 
remove them out of it." It was rumored that a system 
of "denouncing" office-holders for removal would be 
inaugurated according to the mode of the French Revo- 
lution. 

Nor did Jefferson's -appointments please the Federal- 
ists. They had at first hinted he could not find enough 
educated men in his whole mob to fill the cabinet posi- 
tions. Madison as Secretary of State was expected, 
but Albert Gallatin as Secretary of the Treasury pro- 

1 In 1S07, Jeflerson wrote to William Short: " r)ut of about six hun- 
dred offices named by the President, there were six Republicans only when 
I came into office, and these were chiefly half-breeds. Out of upward of 
three hundred holding during pleasure, I removed about fifteen, or those 
who had signalized themselves by their own intolerance in office, because 
the public voice called for it imperiously, and it was just that the Republi- 
cans should at length have some participation in the government. ... In 
this horrid drudgery, I always felt myself as a ]")ulilic executioner." 



234 



THE MI'.X WHO MADJ-: THE XATfON 



voked a howl of indignation. It was declared " a hand- 
some thing that Americans should hire a Genevan to 
keep their money," that a man with "the brogue still 
hobbling on his tongue " should assume the position 
created by the great Hamilton. When the Republicans 
pointed out that Hamilton was also a foreigner, the 
Federalists said that Hamilton had served in the war 

of the Revolution 




r/ Pr/rrtm/ 



fighting for his 
adopted country, 
while Gallatin had 
been only in the 
" whiskey war," 
and that against 
his adopted coun- 
try. 

Gallatin, a for- 
eigner who could 
appreciate the op- 
portunities offered 
in America, a col- 
lege man yet in 
strong sympathy with the common people, a special stu- 
dent of finance, a resident of the frontier of that day, was 
well calculated to fall in with Jefferson's cherished ideas 
of " individual freedom, economy, and reform." This 
shibboleth had been put forth by Jefferson in the inau- 
gural address, and it has stood for democracy for a cen- 
tury. He was the father of the principles of the 
modern Democratic party ; thirty years later Andrew 
Jackson was to create the party machinery and party 
organization. 



Fedkkai. Cakioon on Gallaiin 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 235 

In the interest of economy, the circuit courts, the final 
creation of the Federalists, were readjusted, and the 
judges deprived of their life-tenure ofifices;^ a number of 
consulates were abolished and replaced by cheaper " com- 
mercial agents" appointed from among the natives; 
nineteen inspectors of revenue were discharged, and their 
duties placed on the supervisors. The forces of the 
army and navy were reduced. The construction of the 
warships was stopped. All but twelve of those built 
were sold and only six left in commission. The United 
States, the Constellation, the Gen. Greene, and the Jo/in 
Adams were brought up to the Anacostia branch of the 
Potomac at Washington, where they floated at high tide 
or stuck in the mud when the tide went out. Their 
guns lay rusting and the wheels rotting on the bank. 
Work on the various fortifications was stopped. " En- 
couragement of Agriculture and of Commerce as its 
handmaiden " had been advocated in the inaugural 
address, but commercial New England thought the 
handmaiden ill protected. A newspaper pictured the 
Americans, after one hundred years of this Jacobin rule, 
naked and having lost all knowledge of trade, manufac- 
tures, ships, and shipbuilding, gazing stupidly at some 
chance ship as did Montezuma's people upon the arriv- 
ing Spaniards. 

Jefferson at one time expressed the hope that a time 
might come when no tax-gatherer should be seen in 
America. At his suggestion, Congress cut out the 

1 No doubt the Supreme Court of the United States began about this 
time to feel the pressure of the great number of cases it must pass upon, 
and to demand an intermediary body between itself and the District Court 
already established. 



2l6 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT! OX 

excise law of Hamilton and the later direct taxes of 
the Federalists. Yet so much did the receipts from the 
customs duties increase during this period of prosperity 
and before the rise of American manufactures that 
they atoned for these abandoned taxes and yielded a 
surplus year by year. Of the national debt, Jeffer- 
son said, "We can pay off his [Hamilton's] debt in 
fifteen years ; but we can never get rid of his financial 
system." ^ 

Even while the President and his Secretary of the 
Treasury were planning the emancipation of the people 
from a debt, fate was placing the administration in a 
position where not only an addition to the debt was 
demanded, but where his constitutional principles and 
his conscientious scruples were to be rudely shaken. 
The time had arrived for the first expansion of territory. 

In May following his inauguration, Jefferson wrote 
to Monroe : " There is considerable reason to apprehend 
that Spain cedes Louisiana and the PToridas to P'rance. 
It is a policy very unwise in both and very ruinous to 
us." Ever since the birth of the United States, Spain 
had proven a troublesome neighbor on the south, al- 
though not an aggressive neighbor. But under the 
French, headed by the ambitious Napoleon, Louisiana 
might easily revive the dream of a colonial empire in 
America. No country was safe from that man. France, 
in her struggle for liberty, fraternity, and equality, had 
been the idol of Jefferson. England, in attempting to 
restore monarchy, had been his detestation. He now 
wrote to Livingston, the American minister to France : 

1 During Jefferson's two administratiuns, (iallatin jiaid over §23,0x30,000 
on the national debt. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 237 

" France placing herself in that door [New Orleans] 
assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain might 
have retained it quietly for years. . . . The day that 
France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sen- 
tence which is to restrain her forever within her low- 
water marks. . . . From that moment we must marry 
ourselves to the British fleet and nation." He also sug- 
gested that France could reconcile the Americans to 
the transfer of the whole of Louisiana to her only by 
ceding to them the island of New Orleans and the 
Floridas. 

The " island of New Orleans " ^ once in the possession 
of the United States would remove the immediate ques- 
tion of a seaport for the Mississippi trade. Appreciat- 
ing the " fever into which the western mind is thrown 
by the affair at N. Orleans," Jefferson sent Monroe, a 
man possessing "the unlimited confidence of the admin- 
istration and of the western people, and of republicans 
everywhere," to France to effect the purchase, and, 
failing in that, to "cross the channel." Only by a 
successful mission could the country prevent getting 
"entangled in European politics, and, figuring more, be 
much less happy and prosperous." 

Before Monroe's arrival, Livingston, haggling with 
Napoleon's representative for the "island" and the 
Floridas, was astonished to be asked, " What will you 
give for the whole of Louisiana .'' " Upon Monroe's 
arrival the bargain was struck, and soon Jefferson 

1 The "island" was formed by the Mississippi river. Lake Ponchar- 
train, and a Ijayou called the Iberville river. It included the city of New 
Orleans, and its acquisition would solve the troublesome question of a 
market and transfer ])]ace for western products. 



238 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATIOiV 

could write, " The territory acquired, as it includes all 
the waters of the Missouri & Mississippi, has more 
than doubled the area of the U. S. and the new part is 
not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions & 
important communications." As a man of peace he 
rejoiced that war with France had been averted, and 
this vast territory secured through negotiation. He had 
visions of " giving establishments in it to the Indians 
on the east side of the Missipi, in exchange for their 
present country, and open land offices in the last & 
thus make this acquisition the means of filling up the 
Eastern side, instead of drawing off it's population. 
When we shall be full on this side, we may lay off a 
range of States on the Western bank from the head 
to the mouth & so, range after range, advancing com- 
pactly as we multiply." The alarm of the Eastern 
states over the purchase was to him quite natural. 
" These federalists see in this acquisition the formation 
of a new confederacy, embracing all the waters of the 
Missipi, on both sides of it, and a separation of it's 
Eastern waters from us." "The future inhabitants of 
the Atlantic & Missipi States will be our sons ; . . . 
and if they see their interests in separation, why should 
we take side with our Atlantic rather than our Missipi 
descendants } It is the elder and the younger son 
differing. God bless them both & keep them in union, 
if it be for their good, but separate them, if it be 
better." 

The opposition rested not only on the danger of 
separation by too large a domain, but also on the inabil- 
ity of the government under the Constitution to acquire 
additional territory. Jefferson had always l)cen a stickler 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 239 

for the exact powers as stated. On this pohit, he wrote 
to Gallatin : " There is no constitutional difficulty as to 
the acquisition of territory. ... I think it will be safer 
not to permit the enlargement of the Union but by 
amendment of the Constitution." He therefore drew 
up such an amendment whose adoption would be the 
ratification by the nation of the action of the President 
and Senate. " It is a case of a guardian, investing the 
money of his ward in purchasing an important adjacent 
territory ; & saying to him when of age, I did this for 
your good ; I pretend no right to bind you ; you may 
disavow me, and I must get out of the scrape as I can ; 
I thought my duty to risk myself for you." But when 
some one pointed out that such an avowal would be 
taken by the opposition as a confession that the admin- 
istration had overstepped its powers, the President wrote 
to his friends that "the less we say about constitutional 
difihculties the bettor," and that "it will be desirable for 
Congress to do what is necessary in silenced 

To the end he thought : " I had rather ask an enlarge- 
ment of power from the nation, when it is found neces- 
sary, than to assume it by a construction which would 
make our powers boundless. Our peculiar security is 
in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not 
make it a blank paper by construction." But the prece- 
dent has been followed without the amendment in many 
subsequent acquisitions, and Jefferson stands as an un- 
willing violator of his foundation principle of strict con- 
struction. Necessity was continuing to make the nation. 

In his message to Congress in October, 1803, Presi- 
dent Jefferson announced that the purchase of Louisiana 
would add nearly $13,000,000 to the national debt, 



240 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATIOiV 

most of which would be payable after fifteen years ; ^ 
before which time the existing national debt would 
all be paid. He therefore hoped that the interest on 
this additional debt could be met without a new tax. 
Already Gallatin had cast about for further means of 
paring expenses, but could find nothing save the much 
pared navy. The commercial interests protested in 
vain. Many recalled the inauguration day of Jefferson 
when, in a Philadelphia procession, a great barge or 
boat on wheels bore the legend, "Thomas Jefferson, 
THE Supporter of the Navy." Events had soon shown 
that Jefferson was more in sympathy with domestic than 
foreign commerce, and that democratic retrenchment 
could not favor a large expenditure for a navy. In 
connection with the subjugation of the pirates on the 
north African coast. Congress had authorized the con- 
struction of not more than fifteen " gun-boats." Modelled 
on the plan of the celebrated vessels of Naples, they 
were low and of narrow build, seventy-one feet long, 
generally sloop rigged, and carried two long thirty-two- 
pounders. They cost about ^5000 each. Numbers in- 
stead of names were used to designate them. Numbers 
2 to 10 inclusive saw service in the Mediterranean. 
So impressed was Jefferson with this style of vessel, 
its utility for harbor defence, facility of preparation and 
movement, cheapness of its construction, and economy 
of its service, that Congress from time to time ordered 
157 of them of varying sizes, carrying one or two guns 
and manned by about thirty sailors. 

' The Hartford Courant estimated that the purchase of Louisiana 
wouki average a tax of S30 for each family in the state, and would 
never be worth 30 cents to any family. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 24 1 

Gallatin insisted that they were not to take the place 
of a navy, but as no frigates were built after 1807, com- 
mercial interests declared that the country was being 
sacrificed to a foolish economy. Some showed that 
while a frigate of 56 guns would cost as much as 25 
gunboats of one gun each, yet that the 420 gunners 
necessary to man the frigate would be sufficient to man 
only 10 gunboats ; that the 2520 men necessary to man 
56 gunboats of one gun would man 6 frigates of 336 
guns. Many later critics of Jefferson's economic policy 
claim that the War of 18 12 would not have gained such 
adverse headway if the proper defence had not been 
sacrificed to a theory.^ 

The decay of Spanish power in the new world coupled 
with the meteoric career of Napoleon in the old had 
inflamed the minds of many ambitious men in the 
United States to build an empire on the Spanish ruins. 
The age of romantic expeditions seemed to be returning. 
Francis Miranda, a South American adventurer, sailed 
from New York with a small number of men to liberate 
his native Caracas from Spanish rule. An ex-Vice- 
President, Aaron Burr, of New York, foreseeing the 
revolt of Spanish Mexico, planned an incursion from 
New Orleans into the upper portion of that country. 

In his message to Congress in December, 1806, Jef- 
ferson reported that he had tried to prevent " a great 
number of private individuals combining together, arm- 

1 Before 1809, 176 gunboats, of the 257 planned, had been built at a 
cost of $1,800,222. Seven were lost in gales, and five destroyed by the 
British at New Orleans. They were of such little value in the War of 
1812 that they were ordered laid up, and in 1815 forty were sold at prices 
ranging from $220 to $690 each. See Goldsborough's " U. S. Naval 
Chronicle." 



242 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION ' 

ing and organizing tliemselves contrary to law to carr}' 
on military expeditions against the territories of Spain." 
To a friend he wrote, " The designs of our Catiline 
are as real as they are romantic," and a little later thought 
that Burr intended " to take possession of New Orleans 
as a station from which to make an expedition against 
Vera Cruz & Mexico." Still later : "Burr's enterprise 
is the most extraordinary since the days of Don Quixot. 
It is so extravagant that those who knew his under- 
standing would not believe it if the proofs admitted 
doubt. He has meant to place himself on the throne 
of Montezuma, and extending his empire to the Alle- 
gany seizing on N. Orleans as the instrument of com- 
pulsion for our Western States." 

Naturally opposed to the coercion of the people, 
Jefferson waited c[uietly until Burr had actually started 
on his way down the Mississippi and then set in motion 
the whole military machinery to stop him. Although 
he thought the expedition composed of " fugitives from 
Justice or from their debts . . . and of adventurers & 
speculators of all descriptions," " wlio were longing to 
dip their hands into the mines of Mexico," he imag- 
ined that Burr after being captured was shielded by the 
Federalists, who made his cause their own. It seemed 
a good time to crush the remnant of that party. After 
Burr had been convicted, he would commit for trial 
those "who by boldness betray an inveteracy of crimi- 
nal disposition. Obscure offenders & repenting ones 
should lie for consideration." Even Burr's counsel, 
Luther Martin, should be tried as an accomplice, and, 
if not convicted, the trial would at least " jnit down 
this unprincipled & impudent federal bull-dog." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 243 

The trial of Burr at Richmond, Virginia, on a charge 
of treason assumed to Jefferson a political aspect. 
Chief Justice Marshall, who presided in the circuit 
court at Richmond, was a Federalist whose life term 
under the Constitution had made his removal impos- 
sible. When he decided that Burr had not committed 
an overt act of treason as defined in the Constitution, Jef- 
ferson asked whether his letters, his rendezvous, and his 
flight were not "overt acts." It was all clearly a part 
of politics ; of " that rancorous hatred which Marshall 
bears to the government of his country, & from the 
cunning & sophistry within which he is able to en- 
shroud himself." Yet if the escape of Burr from pun- 
ishment should bring an amendment to the Constitution 
making the justices of the Supreme Court removable 
by the President, it would be worth while. Meanwhile, 
" the enterprise has done good by proving that the 
attachment of the people in the west is as firm as that 
in the east to thp union of our country." 

From a less partisan standpoint, the Burr episode 
proved beneficial in showing that the charge of treason 
is not to be used in the new world as a cloak for unde- 
served punishment ; that a centralizing of the Union by 
such means must lead to tyranny ; and that our fathers 
were wise to specify in the Constitution exactly in what 
treason should consist. If a guilty person escape under 
failure to prove an overt act, the sentence of social 
ostracism which the public places upon a man even 
charged with treason is sufficiently deterrent. The fate 
of Aaron Burr stands as a warning to the American 
who is tempted to incur even the suspicion of treason. 

In a last and perhaps the saddest instance of his 



>44 



THE MEN WHO A/.U)JC riUC XAJ/OX 



administrations, Jefferson was doomed to find that man 
is weak by nature, that patriotism dissolves rapidly 
before material interests, and that it must at times be 
replaced by coercion. In attempting to build up a 
navy on an economic plan, England fed her sailors 
upon such poor food that des^*rtions were numerous. 
Made drunk on shore. Jack came to his senses on board 
a man-of-war to find himself duly articled as a sailor 
and doomed to weevilled biscuits and a rope's end. 
Upon the now abandoned theory of "once a subject 
always a subject," England reserved the right of stop- 
ping any vessel, lining up its seamen on deck, and 
selecting such men as could be proven deserters. Often 
the proof was scanty, for the sailor had no fixed home 
nor means of identification. Gallatin estimated that 
the American vessels employed about 25,000 British 
sailors annually since so many American sailors were 
engaged in the fisheries. Various means were suggested 
in America for stopping this impressment. Jefferson 
opposed the plan of giving each American seaman a 
certificate, since it might be lost so easily. He would 
have the number of sailors apportioned to the tonnage 
of a vessel, and let the overplus be taken. Neither 
remedy was adopted, and the obnoxious practice con- 
tinued. 

In 1807, the British frigate Leopard overhauled the 
American frigate Chesapeake within sight of the Caro- 
lina shore and carried off four sailors, three of whom 
were American citizens. The country was instantly 
aflame. Jefferson wrote : " Never, since the battle of 
Lexington, have I seen such a state of exasperation as at 
present. And even that did not produce such unanim- 



THOMAS ji-:fferso.v 245 

ity. . . . ' Reparation for the past and immunit)' for 
the future ' is our motto. Whether these will be yielded 
freely or will require resort to non-intercourse, or to war, 
is yet to be seen." War, with its "speculations of con- 
tractors and jobbers, and the introduction of permanent 
military and naval establishments," was as objectionable 
to Jefferson as to Gallatin. The latter said : " Money 
we will want to carry on the war ; our revenue will be 
cut up ; new and internal taxes will be slow and not 
sufficiently productive ; we must necessarily borrow. 
This is not pleasing, particularly to me ; but it must be 
done." Indeed, war seemed the only thing left, unless 
the insults were to be quietly borne. A treaty had been 
attempted the preceding year, but England refused to 
yield her right of impressment, and, as Jefferson said, 
" v/e must back out of the negotiation as well as we 
can." Also a mild retaliation had been tried by refus- 
ing to allow any trade with England or her colonies. 
The action simply amused her. She was not dependent 
on the American trade. 

The proposition of a neutral nation was a novel one, 
and, as the United States found it during the continued 
Napoleonic wars, a most trying one. It makes the 
American blood boil to-day to read the humiliating story 
of England and France grinding American commerce 
between the upper and nether millstone. Each was try- 
ing to starve out the other, and no American vessel must 
bring in goods. By these continued insults, America was 
often brought to the point of declaring war, but could 
not decide which of the two countries gave the greater 
cause. But the long-continued grievance about the 
impressment of American seamen on British vessels, 



246 THE ME.V WHO MADE THE JV.IT/OJV 

coupled with the old animosity of Jefferson and his fol- 
lowers toward England, finally turned the scale. 

War would have been supported eagerly by the coun- 
try, but Jefferson hesitated to abandon his principles. 
He ordered all British vessels out of American waters, 
organized the full quota of the Virginia militia, but did 
not call together the war-declaring power, the Congress, 
lie sent an armed vessel to the American agents in 
luigland to demand reparation from that country. Two 
days after Congress had revived the useless non-inter- 
course act of the preceding year, news was received that 
luigland would sustain her officers in making impress- 
ments. The President at once advised that all American 
commerce be withdrawn from the seas by an embargo, 
in order to prevent impressments and seizures. It was 
a part of the old system of commercial restriction. It 
meant suicide to thwart your enemy.' Yet so strong was 
Jefferson's influence and so urgent the demand for action 
that such a measure passed the House in three days and 
the Senate in four hours. 

The difficulty of enforcing the embargo law was 
apparent from the beginning. The collector at New 
Orleans let forty-two vessels go after he knew of the 
embargo because he had no copy of the law. The mer- 
chant interests of Maryland continued to send out pro- 
visions, naval stores, and lumber, with no arrests, be- 
cause no one would accept the marshalship of that state. 
Shut out of ports, captains started on foreign vo}'ages 
from obscure river points until a special law was jiassed 

' He thouj;ht it the only action which could " save us from immediate 
war & give time to call home 80 millions of property, 20, or 30 000 sea- 
men, & 2000 vessels." 



t 



The Esnbamo. 

JUST publifted, 3^4 for (ale, bj: 
HASTINGS, HTHBRIDOH to* Bl.liS, 

THE EMBARGO i—Or 

SKtTCBti or TBI Titact-oa iiurt, the fesoad 
Ejilioo, (orrcOicd «i»i fr>t>rg<:d — 'f'u^eiher with 
the SPANISH RBVOLUTIOM, anJ oilier PoeOM, 

By WllLLIAM Co>A«M BtTAWT. 



THOMAS JEFFERSO.V 247 

for " vessels coming down the rivers." In the Maine 
district of Massachusetts, lumber, fiour, and pork were 
slipped over into Canada until inspectors were given 
power to guard any "collection" of goods "suspected 
to be intended for exportation." So much flour was 
sent into seaboard 
states, undoubtedly 
to be smuggled out, 
that the governors 
were asked to make 
application for flour 
when needed and to 

issue permits to reship it to other American ports. 
When the governor of South Carolina permitted 57,250 
barrels of flour and 129,400 bushels of corn to be 
shipped away, the administration suspected that much 
of it found its way abroad. The collector near St. 
Lawrence, a region formerly supplying potash to Mont- 
real, resigned " from fear or at least a wish not to lose 
his popularity with the people." The President re- 
moved the collector at New Bedford " for worse than 
negligence." Editors encouraged this resistance by print- 
ing funeral notices of the burial of liberty. Authors 
turned upon Jefferson the full strength of their invec- 
tive.^ The collector of Sullivan was "on the totter." 

Evasions of the embargo law continued until it be- 
came necessary to consider as "suspicious" every vessel 
apparently bound for another state which had on 

1 William Cullen Bryant, aged thirty-one, wrote a satire on the embargo, 
in which he addressed President Jefferson : 

" Go, wretch ! resign thy Presidential chair, 
Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair." 



248 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/0 A' 




Ittpfvnfb and profptmy wcW (otcn»«)iM 

vincfl 14 tiojltciif and d.-e »c«W tU^t we 
ai? out ^11 Apofl^ic?, , 

FUNERAL PROCESSION. 

Revoliitirm^ry .I'litcrs hp.J loldiei'i. Vet- 
er.<n<, covered w'th t;ie i'cirs of W«tHi<i», 
received ill ihe cuureoC i^cbeiiy. 



l!/.y.-.RD. 



r.lL;.t!:^V5?.. 



Hon. K. GiLMUf. 

Ml!IO«lTY,M/Af' '/»«^^ 

rkr LAST EfrieARao Biiii~ 
MeflVs. Cha-npiou, 
CliitteiMlcn, Cnlpepptr, 
Dana, Davenp-irt. jun. Elf, 
G.ui^enier, Gsrdnir, Goldfcorocgk, 
Harris. RJ Jacklon. Jenkins, j. I^wis,pn- 
l-lvernjore. hfon, '(Wallers, 
j Milnor, Mofelr. T. Pukim, jr. 

, Q^ncy, kiiifcU. Slo«is, 

I Mandiord, .StediButi 

Sturi<ii, I'ajrg^jt, 
1 Ta\liDud,;«. Upl.rt-n^ 

I Van CcriUnJ^ \'aa<hrlie, 

! Van ^ enfalear, 

Sr*r« of 

NLjiriihiifeiiw. Kh-M*. !i!i3'. Ccnnehlcnf, 
Nov ^^•■k. 1 loi.iwar-, 
M.tivl.i,\l. 
j FiKMcnt, MEfcii»srJ, 

( and UMiut'.in.ls nt Cit'i-u, 

ot v.ni.'iis dciii'iii. 
I iiiu(iun>. 



\ 



OSnUART HOT ICE. 






r.< 



i je.p 



..i<. «u .«! which *r •.., ,, „cu.i (>< r'.e U., 
•ixulhip uf Ihe l.amorl.i VViiSHlN'i ION, <i)2 k 



board articles in de- 
mand at foreign mar- 
kets.^ A force was 
sent to Lake Cham- 
plain, but the people 
stole two of the gov- 
ernment rafts. When 
the captors, who were 
supposed to be Cana- 
dians, were made pris- 
oners, the judge re- 
fused to find bills 
against them. All 
the little gunboats in 
commission and three 
frigates were sta- 
tioned along the coast 
and additional reve- 
nue cutters purchased. 
Gallatin thought the 
law could be enforced 
only with a small army 
along the Lakes and 
British lines gener- 
ally. "The people 
there now are alto- 
gether against the 

1 The opposition news- 
papers insisted that under 
this provision a cow was 
seized in Vermont as she 
was walking toward the Ca- 
nadian boundary line. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 249 

law." Collectors were harassed by suits in the state 
courts. Fishing vessels allowed to go to the Banks " in 
ballast" had secreted goods on board and sailed to the 
Indies. Scores of captains took their chances and sailed 
secretly without any papers. Quantities of flour and 
pork were smuggled over to Canada on sleds during the 
winter. An insurrection broke out at Oswego, New 
York, where goods were being shipped to Canada, and 
the militia was called out to aid the regulars. A mob 
at Newburyport held the custom-house officers while a 
vessel sailed away. Canadian traders claimed that the 
embargo was an infraction of their treaty rights on the 
Lakes, which had been guaranteed in the peace of 

1783. 

Jefferson himself, although loving his people, loved 
his theory still more. He suffered with them, but was 
satisfied to claim that " while the embargo gives no 
double rations it is starving our enemies. This six 
months' session [of Congress] has drawn me down to 
a state of almost total incapacity for business." He 
endeavored to set a pattern for patriotism by sending 
to Colonel Humphreys for some deep blue cloth to 
make a coat. "Homespun is to become the spirit of the 
times." " My idea is that we should encourage home 
manufactures to the extent of our consumption of every- 
thing of which we raise the raw material." 

Holding such sentiments, he was "disposed to act 
boldly" on the embargo. He regretted that "in some 
places, chiefly on our northern frontier, a disposition to 
oppose the law by force has been manifested." Still, 
"could the alternative of war or the embargo have been 
presented to the whole nation, as it occurred to their 



250 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

representatives, there could have been but one opinion, 
that it was better to take the chance of one year by the 
embargo." Those Federalists who " are endeavoring to 
convince England that we suffer more by the embargo 
than they do," he considered " as subjects for a mad- 
house." " The Tories of Boston threaten insurrection 
if their importation of flour is stopped." 



NOTICE. 



TllF MAYon ■ :; : ■ a> . the 

mode of ;i|)j)iiiMti<" : ■' i^iiig 

Piipcr VfiiUTilav, I'' III I'M! Mill in lin ^I'.iliiisot 
thisjxirl, Inr relict. 

He iiifoniis liu i)i;l>li. llwi ihi.- CoiixM-aticii will, 
on llic ]ircscnt ci)iir:;cinv. as iIk'.' lia\f inmc 'in 
tiinner ocaisioiis, [iiMxiiK- luv ilic wants nt c\cr\ 
perfi)!!, \vitl)oiu(li>linri;wii, wlm mkiv Ix- c-onfklcred 
{)ro[x;r cliioi'ts oi w\w\ 

TJK Mavorcan))iiiouio!ii k- tlii- n.>ticc, <sithoiit 
exhorting 'all cla-c.-. ui ('iti>:>ii.- i>' ivfram tVom 
assembling in tli • iniKlcaiproposni, ami <:l|)edal- 
ly difluadesthc SuiU-rs t'nv.ii meeting in the Park, 

fcUjor's-OBice, New-York. ) 
J»nu«ry 9. 1808. > 

H. C. Sou THWICK, Priiilf r, yi, Brc)«dw»y. l Doorsfrom V^U-st. 



Soon after the law was passed Jefferson confessed 
to Gallatin : " This embargo law is certainly the most 
embarrassing one we have ever had to execute. I did 
not expect a crop of so sudden & rank growth of fraud 
& open opposition by force could have grown up in the 
U. S." Each month the handwriting on the wall grew 
more legible. Riots occurred in the seaport cities. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON' 25 I 

The mayor of New York issued an appeal for order 
and advised against agitation meetings. Wlien Con- 
gress met, Gallatin assured the President : " What I 
have foreseen has taken place. A majority will not 
adhere to the embargo much longer." ^ He also told of 
a rumored convention of the five New England states 
and, possibly, New York. " Something must be done 
to anticipate and defeat this nefarious plan." By Feb- 
ruary the crash came. Jefferson wrote : " I thought 
Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing 
their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden 
and unaccountable revolution of opinion took place last 
week, chiefly among the New England and New York 
members, and in a kind of panic they voted the 4th of 
March for removing the embargo, and by such a 
majority as gave all reason to believe they would not 
agree either to war or non-intercourse. This, too, was 
after we had become satisfied that the Essex Junto had 
found their expectation desperate, of inducing the people 
there to either separation or forcible opposition." ^ A 
theory had again yielded to necessity. 

The closing days of Jefferson's administration were 
as sad as the inception was joyous. His embargo was 
repealed, and to Jefferson the loss of a theory was as 

^ Some of the opponents cf the embargo claimed that Jefferson by 
speculating in tobacco had made ^30,000 out of the law. One of the 
toasts offered at Salem, Massachusetts, was : " To THE Modern Judas 
ISC.A.RIOT. He has received his thirty pieces of silver; let him now go 
hang himself." A song went the rounds : 

" Where, oh where is our highland dadtly l)ound? 
He's bound to his plantation with thirty thousand pounds, 
With a gunboat embargoed to plough his native ground." 

'■^ Ford's "Jefferson's Works," Vol. IX., p. 244. 



!52 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/ON 



the loss of a favorite child. A nomination sent to the 
Senate was rejected. " This reception of the last of my 
ofificial communications to them could not be unfelt." 
The public debt was not wiped out ; taxes were still 
levied ; the presence of armed vessels and militia proved 
the futility of non-coercion ; insurrection showed on all 
sides ; the coming war spirit began to be felt. Only 
democratic simplicity was left, and Jefferson, refusing 
the offer of " the good citizens of our country to meet 




MoNllCEl.I.O 

me on the road on my return home, as a manifestation 
of their good will," jjrcfcrred "taking them individ- 
ually by the hand at our court house and other public 
places." Sending the eleven servants and the house- 
hold goods forward in the great wagons which had been 
brought from Monticello for that purpose, he started in 
a one-horse vehicle with a driver, and another servant 
on horseback. Escaping with difficulty at Culpeper 
Court House a group of patriots who wanted to hear 
" Old Tom " speak, he reached that notable home on 
the mountain shelf, second in American interest only to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



253 



the home at Mount Vernon. It was a lonely home. 
Forty-four years Jefferson lived a widower, faithful to 
the promise given, it was said, to his dying wife. If he 
had not Hved longer than his retirement from office, so 
many had been the disappointments, so radical had been 




'.^'■i I. 



AFF.IL 




the contradictions which necessity compelled in his 
theory and practice toward the Union, that his end 
would have been sad to contemplate. But fate allowed 
him seventeen years of enjoyment of ease, removed from 
unpleasant contact with political life, pursuing scientific 
investigation, improving the surroundings of Monticello, 



2 54 ^•^^'" -'^^^'^^ ^^'^^^ .^FADE THE IVAT/OIV 

and, above all, seeing arise over on the opposite slope 
four miles away, the white dome of that pride of his old 
age, the non-sectarian University of Virginia. 

Over his grave, halfway up the wooded slope of Mon- 
ticello, stands a stone bearing an inscription written by 
himself. It is a silent witness to his desire to forget the 
discouraging eight years during which he was President 
of the United States and the exponent of the rule of the 
people. It was true that the national debt had been re- 
duced $33,580,000 under his administration and that a 
clear surplus would remain after the expenditures of his 
retiring year. It was also true that home production and 
consumption had been stimulated under his restrictive 
measures. But another would reap the fruits of this 
new condition in an "American system," as yet not 
elaborated. Even the sun of national prosperity was 
obscured by threatening war clouds. Above all, the 
conviction must have been forced home that the re- 
stricted political form in which the Union had been 
created could not continue if its commercial interests 
were allowed to grow as they naturally would. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HENRY CLAV, THE FATHER OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS 

" I turn from this imposing pageant, so rich in glitter, so 
poor in feehng, to think of him who should have been the cen- 
tral figure of this grand panorama — the distant, the powerless, 
the forgotten . . . the lifelong champion of a diversified Home 
Industry ; of Internal Improvements. . . . More grateful to 
me in the stillness of my lonely chamber, this cup of crystal 
water in which I honor the cherished memory with the old, 
familiar aspiration — 

" ' Here's to you, Harry Clay ! ' " 

— Greeley at the Inauguration of President Taylor. 

The English colonists had formed a thin fringe of 
people along the Atlantic coast, gathered in little 
groups about some harbor or navigable stream. They 
had small means of communication save through the 
mother country. All interests bound them to the east. 
Upon the west lay bewildering forests which concealed 
foes both human and animal. Streams furnished nat- 
ural waterways, but these were often broken by rapids 
or at certain seasons were too shallow to be navigable. 
Although it was necessary to make a portage about 
rapids and to confine travel to the high-water seasons, it 
was easier than trying to make wagon roads out of the 
Indian trails. 

255 



256 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Waterways, therefore, became a prominent factor in 
determining the lines of movement. They had enabled 
the French to form a complete chain about the English. 
French traders and Jesuits went swiftly and silently in 
their birch bark canoes, up and down the St. Lawrence, 
over the Great Lakes, and on the Mississippi. They jour- 
neyed easily from Quebec to New Orleans, while the Eng- 
lish were confined to the Atlantic coast by the great 
barrier of the Alleghany Mountains. Not a waterway, 
save the Potomac, led toward the west. At various times 
the English colonists called the attention of the home 
government to these advances of the French, and in 
1716 Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, led a party as far 
west as the sources of a branch of the Rappahannock, 
where bottles were buried containing the claims of 
George L to the land. 

The expulsion of the French not only from the land 
due west of the English, but from Canada as well, was 
accomplished in the wars ending in 1763, and the atten- 
tion of the colonists was thus turned to their " back 
country." The claim of the Indians was gradually 
bought up in various treaties, and "settlers" flocked 
into the "wild lands." Companies were formed for 
securing grants of this new land and selling it to the 
settlers or to immigrants brought from Europe. 

For several reasons, the Virginians were most inter- 
ested in the new region. Being a country people, and 
accustomed to depend upon their rifles for food, they 
easily bore the solitude and the privations of pioneer 
life. Their agricultural instincts carried them into the 
interior and away from the commercial sea. The slave 
labor which they employed cultivated the ground c.xten- 



HENRY CLAY 257 

sively rather than intensively, and their favorite crop, 
tobacco, by impoverishing the soil, demanded new 
lands. Under her charter, Virginia, as previousl}' 
stated, 1 claimed all the land lying north of the North 
Carolina boundary, and west of the other states. Be- 
cause of this claim, the Virginians had borne the brunt 
of the western campaigns against the French, one of 
her militia officers, George Washington, saving a rout 
after Braddock's defeat. A further reason for Virginia 
being foremost in settling the trans-Alleghanian region 
lay in the fact that she was brought most closely in 
touch with it by both natural and artificial roadways. 

The Braddock expedition, in attempting to go from 
tide-water to the head of the Ohio river, had chosen a 
road long known to traders, and indeed for part of its 
distance used by an earlier expedition. It went up the 
Potomac river or a trail parallel to it as far as Will's 
creek, where now stands Cumberland, Maryland, and 
thence over the mountains, and crossing the Youghio- 
gheny to the Monongahela, passed down that river to 
the junction forming the Ohio. Braddock's soldiers 
had made a good road over this route ; but the traveller, 
after reaching Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), must embark 
on the Ohio, and run the risk of the savage on its 
northern shore. 

The line of movement, therefore, turned south from 
Will's creek along the Shenandoah valley until it was 
joined by another road leading directly from Richmond. 
The two combined to make the "Wilderness road " '^ 

^ In Chapter I. 

2 A description and map of the "Wilderness road" mav he found in 
the publications of the Filson Club, Louisville, Kentucky, 
.s 



258 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

leading along the New, Holston, and Clinch rivers, in 
what is now the southwestern point of Virginia, to the 
Cumberland Gap. Just before the Gap was reached, a 
branch of the road passed down the Clinch into what is 
now Tennessee. After passing the Gap, the main road 
turned sharply north into the blue grass region of 
Kentucky.^ 

Daniel Boone first "blazed" with his tomahawk 
the trees along the two hundred miles of what became 
the "Wilderness road." He removed his family from 
North Carolina to the Kentucky country, only to be 
captured by the Indians. After his escape he found 
that his family had returned to Carolina. Unshaken in 
his hope of the western country, he joined a company 
which established Boonesborough. A blockhouse had 
been built on the Elkhorn before 1775, and to the 
few cabins erected under its protection the name of 
"Lexington" was given when the news of April 19th 
reached that distant region. Travellers began to find 
their way into Kentucky and returned to excite the 
imagination with stories of the wonderful land. The 
forests abounded with game, the streams with fish, and 
the open woods with berries and grapes. The fertility 
of the soil was so marked that all vegetation assumed 
unusual size. In various places were salty marshes or 

1 The most northerly route used by the people in migrating to the Ohio 
valley led up the Mohawk and over Lakes Ontario and Erie. Another 
lay through Pennsylvania, up the Juniata, and sheer over the mountains to 
the Coneniaugh. A third went up tlie Potomac river to Will's creek, w hence 
a northern branch crossed the mountains to the Monongahela river along 
the Ikaddock road. A southern branch led down through the Clinch 
valley to Tennessee, or through the Cumberland (!ap by the Wilderness 
road to Kentucky. A fourth route brought the Carolinians into Tennessee 
around the southern base of the mountains. — See U. S. Census, i8So. 



HENRY CLAY 259 

"licks," so called because wild animals came there to 
lick up the salty earth. The noise of their bellowing 
and fighting made the woods ring. • The buffalo, one of 
the wild animals frequenting these licks, had made 
broad paths or "traces" by many years' passing of his 
huge body and hard hoofs. Other animals of incredi- 
ble size must inhabit the country or have done so 
heretofore, since bones of gigantic size were found in 
the marshes at these licks. ^ There were also springs of 
various mineral tastes which were said to possess differ- 
ent curative powers. 

With such attractions, a small exodus took place from 
Virginia and the Carolinas for "old Kaintuck," which 
continued many years. ^ A large proportion of the fam- 
ilies of Kentucky are descended from Virginians, but 
generally of the middle class socially. They were dis- 
senters from the Established church of the Virginia 
colonial aristocracy. 

These dissenting sects, freed from persecution in the 
Revolution, sprang up immediately after and increased 
with amazing rapidity. The Baptists assumed that pre- 
dominance which they have since enjoyed in the south. 
Their converts were made among the middle rather than 
the upper class, which adhered to the successor of the 
Established church, the Episcopal. 

In all Virginia there is scarcely a less promising 
region than the "slashes" or low, swampy ground on 

1 Jefferson was interested in these bones of the extinct "mammoth." 
The attention of Europe was called to them by Thomas Ashe in his 
"Travels." 

- The attempt to imitate the spelling of the Indian word led to many 
variations in the name of this region, until the modern form was adopted 
l)y an act of the state legislature of Kentucky. 



26o THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/OiV 

the South Anna river. The Rev. William Clay, a 
Baptist clergyman ministering to his parishioners in 
that locality, and said to have done much of his preach- 
ing in the open air, could scarcely have dreamed that 

the seventh child 

„^ \ born in his rap- 

-'cf§: \ idly increasing 

, % i''rK'r\ i;i^S(iNS jk family was des- 

' -^^ i-^! tined to rise by 

V} ^) .... -/;? 1 

c^y ;; a new democ- 

^ , f : il ^ J\J _, }J ^ jU il Y QLA'I ■ racy superior to 

' ^ ' ,; the Virginia ar- 

^ : '. '" istocracy from 

' i? ' Kilicrrii I'liKSIDDM which he was 

'^ "" considered for- 

•'*^- ^*^, ;:■■{ ever barred at 



^iHi^j.fX)^ tA #^.u;'.5, ^ .■' tlie tmie of his 

^s ■ */ ^t! birth. The good 

'~^'-'' ' ;■>■ man passed away 

c when the boy, 

>' I K I s a Apor TK u c 1 r II EN 

i f^, Henry, was but 

■ '^ - ■-■ ■^ " four years of 

^ ■ i; . !.,„■.. - age, leaving lit- 

P pf^iNTED 'for the aujhor ' i^ig niore than a 

blessing to his 
large family. 
_ For ten years 
the widow man- 
aged to pay tuition to one Peter Deacon, a dissipated 
schoolmaster, who taught little Henry reading, writing, 
and the science of arithmetic "as far as Practice." 
Fate, in her apparent ill humor, was really smiling upon 



HEA'RV CLAY 26 1 

the lad for she not only placed him in a log schoolhouse 
with an earthen floor and "puncheon" seats, but she 
allowed him to sit on a bag of grain or flour on a horse's 
back journeying to and from the mill of Mrs. Darricott 
on the Pamunky river. "The mill boy of the slashes"^ 
made the fortune of Henry Clay in the new strength 
of democracy. 

A second father, who had come into the household 
in the meantime, was seized by the Kentucky fever and 
carried the family, save Henry and one other, to the 
promised land. Henry was left as a clerk in the high 
court of chancery at Richmond, and, under the patron- 
age of the chancellor, was licensed by the state to sign 
himself "Attorney at Law," when not quite twenty-one 
years of age. What caused young Clay to take his for- 
tunes into the west must be a conjecture. Perhaps it 
was the influence of the general migration ; perhaps the 
good judgment which foresaw an environment better 
suited to his qualifications than the polished Richmond ; 
perhaps the ties of his family, now residing thirteen 
miles from Lexington, Kentucky. 

Lexington was the acknowledged leader of trans- 
Alleghanian settlements at that time. In 1788, the 
Transylvania Seminary, duly chartered by the Virginia 
legislature, offered tuition for £^ a year, " one 
half in cash, the other in property." "Property" was 
explained as "pork, corn, tobacco, etc." At the same 
time a dancing school was opened, as announced in 
the Kentucky Gazette, founded the year before. Thus 
Lexington became " the literary and intellectual cen- 

1 The practice of rallying men under some sobriquet of the leader has 
been replaced in later times by the names of the two great parties. 



262 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

tre " of the west, although Frankfort, from its more 
central position, was chosen as the first capital. 

To this "western Athens" came the "mill boy of the 
slashes." " Without patrons, without the favor or coun- 
tenance of the great or opulent, without the means of 
paying my weekly board," as he said later, "I remember 
how comfortable I thought I should be if I could make 
one hundred pounds, Virginia money, per year, and with 
what delight I received the first fifteen shillings fee." 

The new country of that day presented opportunities 
for rapid advancement unknown in the conservatism of 
the older i)ortion. The standards of excellence were a 
vigorous body, great physical courage, and " a good 
shot." The rifle was a constant companion of the com- 
mon people. Contests in marksmanship were inevita- 
ble and their arbitration final. The professional man 
was not exempt from this requirement, and many a 
young man was said to have " shot his way into the 
state legislature." Clay did this when he was but 
twenty-six years of age.^ The common agency for the 
self-education of the professional man was the debating 
society. 2 Even in Richmond, Clay had availed himself 
of that aid, and he continued it at Lexington. It was a 
mimic of the combats in the state and national legisla- 
tive arenas in the days before the human voice was 
replaced by the printing-press. Clay's forensic prowess 

1 In later years, Clay was fond of telling the story of this accidental 
shot which hit the centre of the target. A bystander demanded that he 
repeat the sliot if it were skill instead of accident, but Clay refused until 
some one should do equally well. 

'■^ The Danville Political Club, organized in 1786 to meet every Saturday 
night, was one of tlie most famous of these early debating societies in 
Kentucky. 



HENRY CLAY 263 

in the state legislature soon advanced him to a vacancy 
in the United States Senate. The fact that he lacked 
a few months of the age demanded by the Constitution 
for that office was not considered a barrier on the 
frontier. 

The Journal of the Senate of the United States for 
Monday, December 29, 1806, bears this record : 

" Henry Clay, appointed a Senator by the Legislature 
of the State of Kentucky, in the place of John Adair, 
resigned, produced his credentials and took his seat in 
the Senate. The credentials of Mr. Clay and Mr. Reed 
were severally read, and the oath was administered to 
them as the law prescribes." 

Clay at once took his place as the representative of 
the western people. During this one session he secured 
a circuit court for the trans-Alleghanian states, made 
easier certain land laws, secured the appointment of 
commissioners to lay out a canal on the Kentucky side 
about the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, and voted 
favorably on the call of Worthington, of Ohio, for a 
report from the Secretary of the Treasury showing what 
had already been done toward opening roads and canals 
by the national government and describing plans for 
the future.^ He also heard President Jefferson's report 
upon a survey for the " Cumberland national road," a 
project in which Clay was to become deeply interested 
at a later time. 

1 Albert Gallatin, of foreign birth and practical turn of mind, had never 
shared the conscientious scruples of his leader, Jefferson, on works of 
public benefit. In 1808, he made an exhaustive report to Congress upon 
the topography of the United States, suggesting a network of canals, roads, 
and rivers to be improved by the central government, at an estimated cost 
of $16,000,000. 



264 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/ ON 

The residents of the Atlantic coast plain, remaining 
in the environment of their European ancestors, contin- 
ued to be a reflex of old-world types and ideals. The 
compelling environment of the trans-mountain region 
produced a new type out of their brothers who migrated 
thither. It was closely allied to the soil and fiercely 
American. Clay had shown the result during Jeffer- 
son's embargo struggle by offering legislative resolu- 
tions that the members should wear clothing of American 
manufacture. 1 The embargo kept out foreign goods. It 
was an easy step to the thought of some kind of a per- 
petual embargo which would compel the American peo- 
ple to patronize their home productions and thus keep 
the money at home. Now a high tariff would act as 
an embargo. At the same time it would protect the 
American workingman, who was manufacturing these 
articles, from foreign competition. Those Americans 
who persisted in buying foreign goods must pay the 
tariff duties on them. The money thus obtained could 
be used in improving the means of internal transporta- 
tion. These in turn would aid in getting both the raw 
materials to the factories and the manufactured products 
to the market. Thus Clay evolved his mutually recipro- 
cal "American system" of a protective tariff, domestic 
manufacture, and internal improvements. 

In 1 8 10, discussing a Senate bill to give preference to 
American products in supplying the army. Clay attacked 
" Dame Commerce, a flirting, flippant, noisy jade," as 
opposed to domestic manufacture. He declared his 

1 This resolution of Clay in the Kentucky legislature was ridiculed by a 
fellow-memlier, and a duel followed in which Clay was wounded in the 
shoulder. 



HENRY CLAY 265 

pleasure and pride in being clad in American clothing. 
" Others may prefer the cloths of Leeds and London, 
but give me those of Humphreyville." Such sentiment 
held largely among Clay's western constituency, and, as 
the balance of population was gradually shifted from 
the Atlantic coast and its European influences to the 
western valley, Clay was able to formulate his policy. 
The patriotic sentiment engendered in the war of 1812 
enabled him to announce the American system soon 
after peace had come, when the times demanded a re- 
arrangement of the disordered finances and industries of 
the country. This same westward movement had con- 
tributed in another way to Clay's policy by showing 
the need of better means of communication over the 
mountains. 

The importance of connecting the waterways of the 
Atlantic slope with those of the Ohio valley had been 
realized before the Revolution, but assumed a new value 
in the aspirations of the young republic. Railroads 
were not yet contemplated ; it would be impossible to 
find water to fill a canal over the mountains ; therefore, 
a roadway was the only agency left. It would be a vast 
enterprise, and one for which private capital had not 
yet sufficiently accumulated. The wealthy state of Vir- 
ginia, particularly interested in the western country, 
might undertake it. But if the shortest portage be 
chosen, the highway would not lie entirely in one state. 
Naturally the national government suggested itself as 
a common agency well suited to undertake the road. 
No one could have foreseen what effect this would have 
on the Union. 

The western people felt the importance of such com- 



266 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATiON 



nuinication with the older section. When they crossed 
the mountains, they bade farewell to friends, since the 
journey was not one to be voluntarily undertaken. 
Several of the middle western states, beginning with 
Ohio, arranged with the national government for a share 
of the public land sales to build roads from the Atlantic 
to the states. From this fund, three commissioners 




The Cumberland Road, showing Api'koximate Dates 
OF Completion 

had been appointed in 1805 to search for the shortest 
and most desirable portage over which to construct the 
road. They determined upon a route from old Fort 
Cumberland on the Potomac to the Ohio, a distance 
of 141 miles. It lay for some distance along the old 
Braddock road. Such was the report which Clay heard 
during his first term in Congress. 

Clay was a southern man, bred in the principles of 
strict construction. When he made his first appear- 
ance in Congress, John Ouincy Adams pronounced him 
"a young man — an orator — and a republican of the 
the first fire." Yet the republicanism and the strict 
construction of Clay in Kentucky were not those of Jef- 
ferson in Virginia. They would not let constitutional 
tlicories stand in the way of coveted benefits. Clay 
r.ppreciated the humor in Jefferson's dodging the point 



HENRV CLAY 267 

by saying that when states gave permission to the gov- 
ernment to build a road, then the constitutional objec- 
tion was removed. According to that reasoning, all 
restrictions on the national government could be re- 
moved and strict construction and state sovereignty 
would have committed suicide. Clay believed that the 
money granted to the Cumberland road was fully 
justified by the " common defence and general wel- 
fare " as well as by the power "to make all laws which 
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 
tion the foregoing powers." If the Cumberland road 
was justified, then any other road over which troops, 
ammunition, or anything necessary for the common 
defence must pass, would be justified. If the Congress 
had power to make such a roadway, it had als6 power 
to dig a waterway when that form of communication 
was more desirable than a road. Post-roads Clay would 
construct under the expressed power to establish post- 
roads, but he would not restrict such improvements to 
those over which the mails were to be carried. He 
would not have a stamling army, but would depend 
upon a well-organized militia for which free means of 
movement must be provided. Whatever illustration he 
needed upon this point was supplied by the war of 1812. 
In agitating the war. Clay and the other " war-hawks " 
in Congress had boasted that the Americans would 
invade Canada and "roll it up." The difificulty of 
invading a thousand miles of border was early shown 
in the northwest. Governor Harrison, of the territory 
of Indiana, was placed at the head of over 10,000 ill- 
equipped raw militia men, recruited in Kentucky, Vu- 
einia, Pennsvlvania, and Indiana. When no more men 



268 THE MEX WHO MADE THE XAT/OX 

could be accepted, Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, offered 
to lead the independent militia from his state. The spirit 
of the days of '76 seemed to have come again. But 
when the troops in several divisions started through the 
wilderness between the Ohio and Lake Erie, they could 
find no roads leading to the enemy. 

The governor of Ohio furnished a band of " pio- 
neers " who made a kind of cleared way for the middle 
division. It was the autumn season, rainy, cold, and 
muddy. When the columns tried to approach the west- 
ern end of Lake Erie they came into the Great Black 
Swamp of the Maumee river. Three miles a day was 
good progress. Provisions were so far behind that each 
man had to carry enough for seven days. Many had 
recourse to nuts and bark of trees. Contemporary 
writers praise the endurance of the troops. 

"From Urbanna to the Rapids of the Miami is 150 miles. 
The route of the army was through a thick and almost track- 
less forest. As there were a great number of baggage waggons 
attached to the army, it became necessary to open a new road 
the whole distance. The soil of the land was moist, being in 
many places a perfect swam]). The weather was rainy and 
man and horse liad to travel mid-leg deep in mud. Fre- 
quently the van had to halt for the rear, which was as often 
detained on its march in relieving waggons and horses fron> 
the mire. . . . The men themselves were destitute of many 
articles of the first necessity. . . . When the horses themselves 
were no longer able to draw, these gallant sons of Mars har- 
nessed themselves to the sleds and in this manner conveyed 
their baggage sixty miles through frost and snow. . . . 

" In this Swamp you lose sight of terra fir))ia altogether — 
the water was about six inches deep on the ice, which was very 



HEXRY CLAY 269 

rotten, often breaking through to the depth of four or five 
feet. ... It was with difficulty that we could raise fires ; we 
had no tents, our clothes were wet, no axes, nothing to cook 
in, and ver\' little to eat. A brigade of packhorses being near 
us, we procured from them some flour, killed a hog (there 
being plenty of them along the road :) our bread was baked 
in the ashes, and the pork we broiled on the coals — a sweeter 
meal I never partook of When we went to sleep, it was on 
two logs laid close to each other to keep our bodies from the 
damp ground." ' 

On the same subject, Clay said in debate : 

" We should not have lost Moose Island during the late war 
if we had possessed military roads. ^Massachusetts and the 
Union were unable to send a force sufficient to dislodge the 
enemy. On the northwestern frontier, millions of money and 
some of the most precious blood of the state from which I 
have the honor to come, was wastefully expended for the want 
of such roads. ... In travelling from Philadelphia in the fall 
of 1813, I saw transporting by government from Elk river to 
the Delaware large quantities of massy timber for war vessels. 
The additional expense from wagons and horses would have 
gone far to complete the canal." 

All through the disastrous campaigns in the north- 
west the same lack of supplies continued. Flour was 
transported by packhorses, each animal carrying only 
one-half barrel. Additional horses had to accompany 
the packhorses to carry forage for them. Much of 
the flour was spoiled by rain or snow on the way. It 
was said that the cost of that actually consumed was 
$100 per barrel. Of the four thousand packhorses, 

^ Brown's " Views of the Campaigns of the Northwest Army," pp. 39, 43. 



270 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

but eight hundred survived. Many of the contract- 
ors who had not taken the lack of roads into con- 
sideration were ruined and forfeited their contracts, 
leaving the government at the mercy of extortionists.^ 
These experiences were vividly portrayed in Congress 
by members when pleading for appropriations to be 
spent on means of communication. Speaking of the 
highway which had been begun through the Black 
Swamp, one said : 

" Not a solitary traveller now finds his way along that road ; 
it is principally indicated by broken fragments of baggage wag- 
ons and gun carriages, scattered remains of flour barrels and 
the mouldering skeletons of horses and oxen, remaining as they 
were left, just visible above the surface of the mud and wet 
which destroyed them." ~ 

Others pictured the hardships of the emigrants in 
crossing the mountains : 

" A farmer with a fine family of children, finding a difficulty 
of procuring subsistence in some of the older states, and look- 
ing forwartl to their future welfare, determines to go to the 
western country where land is cheap ; he sets out with a little 
cart and two poor horses, to carry his wife and half a dozen 
children ; and not knowing the distance or the road accurately 
his slender means is soon exhausted ; the horses are unable to 
carry further all that is dear to him ; he is broken down by 
sickness, and his children cry around him for that relief which 
he is unable to afford them; and when he arrives at his desti- 

1 General Harrison, the western commander, was accused of extrava- 
gance in having spent $1,160,000 for supjilies in a year and a half. See 
" State Papers of the 14th Congress," 2d Session, Vol. I., Report No. 21. 

- " American Slate Papers," miscellaneous. Vol. I., p. 593. 



HENRY CLAY 



271 



nation, he is separated forever from all those relations which he 
may have left behind him."^ 

It was impossible to resist such appeals. The demand 
of those who had migrated to the new country was aided 
by the cry of their 
friends in the east who 
wanted to exchange let- 
ters and visits with them. 
Coriimerce, ever aggres- 
sive, demanded better 
facilities. Conscientious 
scruples about constitu- 
tional construction must 
vanish from each con- 
gressman's mind under 
such pressure from con- 
stituents. The first 
appropriations for the 
Cumberland road were 
made from the two per 
cent fund. '5 Later the 
money was advanced 
from the United States 

1 Harrison, of Indiana. See 
" Debates of Congress," Vol. II., 
Pt. I. (1826), p. 358. 

- This public testimonial to 
the father of theCymberland road 
is located on that great highway 
near Wheeling, West Virginia. 

^ Ohio agreed not to tax the t^_ 
public land lying within her f^- 
limits for five years, if the 
United States would give her Mummext Vu ili^MvV Li.av 




272 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

treasury to be replaced from this meagre fund ; at last 
all disguise was thrown aside, and money was voted 
directly to complete the road not only to the Ohio 
river at Wheeling, but through the state capitals of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. ^ 

Although the American system contributed powerfully 
to the making of the Union, since it ignored the agency 
of the states, it begot a most pernicious practice of 
"log-rolling" among the members of Congress, as well 
as a never satisfied hunger among the people for further 
public benefits. In order to gain the passage of some 
local benefit measure, a member was obliged to promise 
aid to a similar enterprise fathered by another. An 
appropriation for one locality incited the cupidity of its 
neighbors.^ When Clay pushed his Louisville canal 
survey through the Senate during his first session by a 
vote of 1 8 to 8, John Ouincy Adams explained it as 
having "obviously been settled out of doors." He also 
made a calculation that the senators from the three states 
interested in the canal (Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio), 

five per cent of the proceeds of the sales of these lands for building 
roads. Subsequently two per cent of this five per cent was granted for 
making a road to the state of Ohio. The same agreement was afterwards 
made with the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Having once 
entered upon the building of this road, the Federal government found 
it impossible to stop. Sixty distinct acts were passed for the road between 
i8o6 and 1838, ant! almost $7,000,000 appropriated. 

1 That is through Columbus, Indianapolis, Vandalia, and Jefferson City. 
Before it was fully completed, the road was given by the United States to 
these four states. They have given it to the respective counties through 
which it passes, by whom it is still maintained. 

- In 1804, the Ohio Canal Company was incorporated by the legisla- 
ture of Kentucky for building a canal about the Falls at Louisville. The 
enterprise solicited Congressional aid, since it would benefit the govern- 
ment salt works on the Wabash, and woul<l hasten the sale of public lands 
along the Ohio river. 



HENRY CLAY 273 

together with those interested in the Chesapeake and 
Delaware canal (Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania) 
could influence enough additional members to carry 
both those measures. 

The self-interest attached to all these claims for pub- 
lic benefit is illustrated by the Maysville road. The 
people of central Kentucky desired an outlet to the 
Ohio river, and a company was organized to construct 
a road from Lexington to Maysville. In order to get the 
national government to subscribe to the enterprise, it 
was proposed to make it a link in a great " national " 
road which should branch southwardly in Ohio from the 
Cumberland national road, and, passing through Ken- 
tucky and other intervening states, eventually reach 
New Orleans. Fortune seemed to favor the plan. 
Henry Clay, the virtual father of " internal improve- 
ments," resided near Lexington, and Anchew Jackson, 
the President of the United States, near the line of the 
proposed road in Tennessee. 

Notwithstanding the opposition of the southern 
Atlantic states, whose hopes of a road to New Orleans 
through their territory had been raised by surveys and 
reports made at various times, the Maysville road meas- 
ure was put through both houses of Congress. In vain 
did the opposition show the folly of spending $50,000 
on three counties of Kentucky. At this rate it would 
cost four millions to satisfy the state and seventy-two 
millions to appease the eighteen states. They showed 
that the national government had already incurred obli- 
gations for public improvements amounting to one hun- 
dred and six millions. Forty-two such j)rojects were 
now pending in Congress, including bridges, roads, rail- 
1 



274 ^^^" '^^^^ ^^'^O MADE THE NAT/OAF 

roads, canals, and river improvements. The patronage 
was raising up an army of contractors and wire pullers, 
they said, equal to the standing armies of Europe. Clay's 
" American system " was declared not a whit less 
odious than the European system. 

" The President is now supposed to allow the money 
drawn from the pockets of the people of the nation by 
indirect taxation to be squandered in making state and 
neighborhood roads from the Ohio river to Mr. Clay's farm 
at Lexington, merely that the credit of the project may 
be given to Mr. Clay." President Jackson, although 
approving appropriations for the Cumberland road, and 
for rivers, harbors, and canals, vetoed the Maysville road 
bill. 

One effect of this veto was to recall the people to 
their senses in the mad race for public benefits. No 
one who knew Andrew Jackson could hope that he 
would change his attitude toward the inauguration of 
new projects. His influence was also so strong with 
his understood successor, Van Buren, that no hope 
could be seen in the future. Before the end of Van 
Buren's administration, the public improvement craze 
had been transferred to the states, and their disastrous 
experiences following the panic of 1837 cooled the ardor 
of these internal expansionists. 

Another effect was to bring Clay forward as the 
champion of public improvements unlimited. "By the 
injudicious exercise of the veto power," said one news- 
paper, " Jackson has lost all chances of a second term. 
The cry is — Now for Cl.vy ! " The veto made him 
an opponent of Jackson in the election of 1832. It 
made Jackson unpopular in districts expecting a share 



HENRY CLAY 275 

of the public usufruct. It was reported that at Mays- 
ville, when the President passed down the river on his 
way home after the adjournment of Congress, "not a 
single bow " was offered to him. "As the boat rounded 
off from shore, the General from the deck bowed to the 
citizens — but not a Hat moved. Silent contempt was 
his reward at this place." ^ But indignation was not 
sufficiently widespread to defeat Jackson and elect Clay. 
The people were neither unappreciative nor ungrate- 
ful for the efforts of Clay in their behalf. His journeys 
to and from Washington at the opening and closing of 
Congress were continued ovations. Especially was this 
true if he were bidding farewell to public life and 
retiring to his Kentucky farm, as he so frequently did. 
His carriage or the public coach was stopped at the 
edge of every hamlet by the enthusiastic people, who 
drew it by hand to the city tavern, where a speech 
must be made by the great "Harry Clay."^ Later, a 
public meeting, an informal serenade, or a banquet 
awaited "the man who wins all hearts." If the time 
of his arrival chanced to be so fortunate, he graced the 
annual horse trot or the agricultural fair. The local 
poet fashioned an appropriate stanza : 

" The people\s favorite, Henry Clay, 
Is now the ' Fashion ' of the day ; 
And let the track be dry or mucky, 
We'll stake our pile on old Kentucky. 

Get out of the way, he's swift and lucky, 
Clear the track for old Kentucky." 

1 Louisville Advertiser, July 9, 1830. 

- When Clay came to Washington in 1848 to address the Colonization 
Society, Senator Crittenden said of him that he could get more people to 
listen to him speak and fewer to vote for him than any man in the United 
States. 



2/6 THE MEN WHO .\LiDE THE NATION 

If he chose to travel by the Cumberland road, public 
recognition was doubly enthusiastic for the man whose 
efforts were largely responsible for this great link 
between the east and west.^ He himself testified : " I 
have free passage across the mountains. I am invited 
to dinners, suppers, and balls. Taverns, stages, and 
toll-gates have been generally thrown open to me free 
of charge. A monarch might be proud of the reception 
with which I have everywhere been honored." 

Much rivalry was manifest between the stage lines on 
the road for the honor of carrying him. If he chose 
the Old Line or the Oyster Line on one trip, he must 
promise to patronize the Good Intent the next time. 
The drivers of the PatJifindcr, the Republic, and the I^ro- 
tection contested with the drivers of the Erin go Bragh 
and the Central America for the distinguished passenger. 
The landlord of the JMonnt Vennvi, the Pancake, the 
White Goose and Golden Swan, or the Cross Keys stood 
upon his steps to welcome the father of the " American 
system." It was said that Clay knew by name many of 
the drivers and landlords along the road. 

His enemies sneered that the " hero of the knife and 
fork " or " the table orator " was again upon his trav- 
els ; they suggested that the American system should be 

1 " He was met on his entrance into the town by the Cumberland Band, 
who escorted him to the hotel and there discoursed some of their best 
music. Soon after his arrival, he received a large concourse of our citizens, 
who, as has been the case many thousand times before in this and other 
places, were delighted with his bland, courteous manner. After some time 
spent in gazing upon the features and listening to the voice of this most 
remarkable man of the present century, Mr. Clay in a few glowing words 
returned his thanks to the assembled multitude, wished them many returns 
of a happy new year, and amid loud cheering, retired to his room." — From 
the Cumberland (Md.) Civilian. 



HENRY CLAY 277 

called the "Bribery system" or the "Eating system." 
Nevertheless, when Clay visited Pittsburg" the Anchor 
paper mills gave its workmen a holiday and the cham- 
pion of American industry a mighty feast. The straw 
manufacturers made for Mrs. Clay a mammoth straw 
hat, and the silversmiths of New York presented a 
tablet to their protector. 

Clay's admirers delighted to pass along the story that 
at one time, when he was thrown from a coach on a pile 
of limestone broken to repair the road near Uniontown, 
he remarked, " Well, we ought to have a good road now, 
since we are mingling the limestone of Pennsylvania 
with the Clay of Kentucky." His constituency espe- 
cially admired the reply of Mrs. Clay, who passed the 
card room in the Capitol and was asked whether she 
regretted seeing her husband play for money. " Oh no, 
he nearly always wins." 

By 1809, the art of applying steam to navigation, as 
perfected by Fulton on the Hudson, had reached the 
middle west. With the coming of the steamboat, a 
demand arose for the clearing of streams and the 
construction of harbors by the national government. 
Although large appropriations were made, many 
doubted whether the constitutional provision for regu- 
lating commerce covered internal as well as ocean com- 
merce. But the same law of compulsion which was 
making the nation decided affirmatively.^ This hesitancy, 
however, cut off artificial waterways or canals not a part 
of rivers from national aid. A new departure was 

1 According to a report of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, 
the total appropriation for rivers and harbors made by Congress between 
17S9 Tnrl 1892 amounted to over $236,000,000. 



2yS THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

made in the Erie Canal constructed by the state 
of New York after years of petitioning Congress for 
assistance. Ohio and other states followed her example. 



O/M, Passage nf thffinl Uhul from Ihc (lrmuH',i,tM mlo the Hmhon. 
■tl Ihc Cil,j of .llh.uu,, „„ fF»hus,l,nj, Orlnh,,- 8. 1823. 



©iTjrr Of :nri\-inor»>?nts» 



Ai ujiirh time the joint com. 
als. and there join the Canal 
f .i.j.u ib« onaf Oa their 

'■•■I 11 .:,!. .,ih ihe Mlhl.rv 



Just when the canal and steamboat had reached their 
highest point of popularity, their rival, and ultimately 
their deadly foe, appeared. At the inauguration of 
Jackson, a model of a newly invented railroad car had 
been shown in the rotunda of the Capitol, in which 
" eight persons were drawn by a thread of common sew- 
ing cotton." In his "First Book of History," Peter 
Parley said : 

" But the most curiou.s thing at lialtimore is the railroad. 
I must tell you that there is a great trade between Baltimore 
and the states west of the Alleghany mountains. . . . Now in 
order to carry on all this business the more easily, the people 
are building what they call a railroad. This consists of iron 
bars laid along the ground, and made fast so that carriages with 
small wheels may run along them with facility. In this way 
each horse will be able to draw as much as ten horses on a 
common road. A part of this railroad is already done, and if 
you choose to take a ride upon it you may do so. You will 
mount a carriage something like a stage, and then you will be 
drawn along by two horses at the rate of twelve miles an hour." 



HENRY CLAY 



279 



Baltitnore and the states west of t!ie' 

Alleghany Mountains. The western 
people buy a great many goods at Bal- 
titnore, and send in return a great deal 
of western produce. There is, there- 
{V)re, a vast deal of travelling back and 
forth, and hundreds of teams are con- 
stantly occupied in transporting goods 
and produce to and from market. 



The members of Congress went over to Baltimore by 
stage for the purpose of riding on the new road, and 
were surprised to 
see one horse 
draw four car- 
riages on which 
were seated one 
hundred and fifty 
people. Soon the 
steam locomotive 
had replaced 
horses and sails. ^ 
The eccentric 
Davy Crockett 
described his ex- 
perience on the 
railroad : 

"This was a clean 
new sight to me ; 
about a dozen big 
stages hung onto 
one machine and 

to start up a hill. (From Peter Parley's " First Book of History") 

^ A very popular song to be heard in the theatres of the day, began as 
follows : 

" At the inns on our route 

No ostler comes out 

To give water to Spanker or Smiler; 

But loU'd at our ease 

We ask landlord to please 

Put a little more water in the boiler. 




Rail-road Car. 



8. Now, in order to carry on all this 
business more easily, the people are 
building what is called a rail-road. 
This consists of iron bars laid aloijig j 



And we're no longer gee up and gee ho. 
But fiz, fiz, fiz, off we go." 



280 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



After a good deal of fuss, we all got seated and moved slowly 
off; the engine wheezing as if she had tizzick. By-and-by she 
began to take short breaths, and away we went with a blue 
streak after us. The whole distance is seventeen miles, and 
it was run in fifty-five minutes." 

Railroads were used at first to connect waterways, 
both natural and artificial. That they could ever 




IMilil«^MWIIJMIV 



T' 



LAY SOKGSTER, 



^ 





The Farmer, thi; iStttfesiunn, and ratriot, 

BOSTON: 

J. FISHI;HjNo. 71 COURT STREET. 



supplant canals was doubted. When a Cincinnati 
newspaper in 1830 predicted that within twenty years 



HENRY CLAY 28 1 

the many hundreds of canals planned, at a cost of 
^30,000,000, would be filled up or drained to make 
foundations for railroads, other papers "recorded" it 
as a "matter of curious speculation." Railways were 
never considered fit subjects for national aid beyond the 
granting of pubhc lands through which they passed. 
Private capital accumulated sufificiently to build them 
before the demand for extensive construction arose. 
They never entered into Clay's American system. 

In many parts of the United States one may find a 
well-kept railway running beside the grass-grown bed 
of a deserted canal. Having passed the day of its use- 
fulness, it remains a silent witness to the fickleness of 
popularity. Here and there over the land one finds 
evidences of the dead hopes of the thousands who time 
and again tried to reward their champion with the 
presidency. No man ever had such followers as Clay ; 
so faithful through many defeats, yet never sufficiently 
strong to accomplish their purpose. Adopting a homely 
phrase familiar to every Kentucky hunter, they " picked 
flint and tried it again." A thousand voices were 
always ready to respond : 

" Here's to you, Harry Clay, 
Here's to you with all my heart. 
And you shall be the President, 
And that before we part. 
Here's to you, Harry Clay." 



CHAPTER IX 

ANDREW JACKSON, THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT 

" But, unaided by any such or other improper means, and 
opposed by an organized corps of LfiiJiiig men, and intriguing 
poHticians, in ahnost every state of the Union, he is emphati- 
cally the Candidate of the People." — From an Address to 
the People of Ohio on the Next Presidency. Cincinnati, 1824. 

'• Freeman, cheer the Hickory tree 
In storms its boughs have sheltered thee ; 
Cer Freedom's Land its branches wave, 
'Twas planted on the Lion's Grave." 

— Campaign Song of 1S28. 

War is always a disturbing element in history. It is 
revolution as opposed to peaceful evolution. Peace is 
the normal condition, war the abnormal. The war spirit 
is contagious ; it is unreasoning ; it is tyrannical. It 
demands a harmony of action ; it denounces opposition 
as unpatriotic ; it does not hesitate to restrict free 
speech and civil rights. The man who opposes war 
does so at his peril ; the political party which opposes 
war invites defeat. Those who opposed taking up arms 
in the Revolutionary war were proscribed, banished, and 
their property confiscated. Those who opposed the 
war of 18 12 were accused of treason;' their names 

^ In Adams's "History of the Admiiiistratinns of Jefferson and Madi- 
son," see the " blue light " charges. 

282 



ANDRE W JA CKSON 283 

were held up to scorn in later years ; their political 
hopes blasted. Not a man who took part in the pro- 
testing convention at Hartford could ever hope for 
political preferment at the hands of the people. 

The triumphant close of the war brought such pres- 
tige to the Republicans or Jefferson party that the Fed- 
eralists ceased to be recognized in national politics, and 
the political "era of good feeling" followed. Men had 
looked forward to a cessation of partisanship as a kind of 
millennium. It was felt that with the abeyance of party 
issues, the welfare of the entire country would be more 
carefully considered. But it was soon seen that parties 
form the mechanism of popular government ; that the 
people must have working lines if the government is to 
be a thing of life ; that with the disappearance of party 
issues, personal issues are sure to arise. In that case, 
the good of the government is lost sight of in consider- 
ing the qualifications of the various leaders and in the 
resulting personal strife. 

This predominance of the personal element in " the 
era of good feeling" was well illustrated in the election 
of 1824. Four years before, party feeling may be said 
to have reached its lowest point at the second election 
of Monroe, when he received every electoral vote cast 
save one.^ There was absolutely no national party or 
issue. But in 1824, there were so many candidates 
before the electors that no one had a majority. 

In the quarter of a century since the people had 
revolted and elected Jefferson, a state of affairs similar 
to that time had arisen. Political power is constantly 

^ It is said that one elector threw away his vote rather than have another 
unanimously sleeted President after Washington. 



284 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

slipping unpcrceived from the hands of the many to the 
hands of the few. By 1824, it had come to be under- 
stood that the Secretary of State should be the next 
President, the "Secretary succession" as it was called. 
Therefore, John Quincy Adams received some electoral 
votes. But a certain element in Washington rallied 
about William H. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of 
the Treasury, and tried to change the order of succes- 
sion to the presidency. Adams was from the north 
Atlantic and Crawford from the south Atlantic section, 
the former seats of political contests. The migration of 
the people, as described in a previous chapter, had 
brought forth a new and unperceived element — the 
west. Its people were grateful to the champion of 
their great internal improvement system, and the elec- 
toral votes of Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri were given 
to Henry Clay. He was the choice of the people as 
opposed to the politicians, but of the higher class of 
people. He might have been elected had not another 
candidate been put forward by the masses of the people. 
This fourth candidate, Andrew Jackson, is an illustra- 
tion of war as a disturbing agent in political plans. His 
war record was his great and almost sole qualification. 
In the local Indian wars on the southwestern frontier, 
he had endeared himself to the borderers as the pro- 
tector of their homes and families ; in the battle of New 
Orleans he had made himself a national hero, since it 
was a kind of redeeming victory in a rather inglorious 
contest on the land.^ The American people have, since 

1 A han(ll)ill in the New York Historical .Society, reproduced on page 286, 
shows that no news of the battle of New Orleans had reached that city until 
after the news of the peace came. 



ANDREW JACKSON 



285 



the days of Washington, deemed the presidency the only 
suitable reward for a war hero. Much to the dismay of 
politicians, the rough 
old Indian fighter re- 
ceived the highest 
number of electoral 
votes, although not a 
majority. 

When the unsettled 
election went into the 
House of Representa- 
tives, Clay, the low- 
est on the list, was 
dropped.^ His strength 
lay in the west and 
would naturally go to 
Jackson. They were 
the two candidates of 
the people ; they rep- 
resented the new as 
against the old. But 
contrary to all expec- 
tation. Clay lent his 
influence to Adams Andrew Jackson 2 

and secured his election. When Adams made up his 
cabinet. Clay was made Secretary of State. His turn 
would come next. Clay could not believe that " the 
killing of two thousand five hundred Englishmen at New 
Orleans " qualified Jackson for the presidency. 

Immediately arose the cry of "a corrupt bargain." 

^ According to the Constitution, Amendment XII., Sec. I. 
- From an old print of the painting by Earle. 




286 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



Clay had sold himself for thirty pieces of silver.^ It 
was "a coalition of Rlifil and Black George — a com- 
bination, un- 
heard of till 
now, of the 
Puritan and 
the blackleg." 
The hero of 
the people had 
been defeated 
by a political 
trick. But a 
day of reckon- 
ing was only 
four years 
away. 

Under u n- 
known and un- 
trained leaders, 
but men who 
matched the 
keenness of the 
politician with 
the subtlety of 
the borderer, 



O'Jtce of ihe PhilaJelphta Oaielte, Feb. iSthr' '. 

LamD^ol 

Glorious News ! ! ! 

PEACE. 

An express passc.l thinity ihU raorning for the 
8outiiw.r/j. H. i>.^s)n % m m auted i M TnTghti^ 
al New-York, which ve *-i;nruil lo Mr. Havens, 
who. politely she\red us iu tcntents, which are m 
follow : 

" A BfiKsh Sloop of War,* with Mr. Carrol, and 
a Treaty of PEACE has just arrlved_,ign.-d on 
Ihe 24th Itccember. 

When the Express left New-York, at ticvcn 
oV-lock, Ian night, the ci<y wa, brilliauUy iihl- 
nlnated. 

KT No Mail fPim Wew-Orleani. 




i 



the " 
1 A 



Jackson men " devoted themselves for four years 

stanza of doggerel, current at the time, runs : 

" Harry Clay was a cunning chap, 
His debts had thrown him all aback. 
So he felt a longing for Treasury pap. 
He made a bargain with John the great, 
I shan't the particulars here relate. 
But Harry was placed in the chair of State, 
Heigh-ho, says Harry." 



ANDREI V J A CKSON 287 

to the interests of their candidate. They marked every 
representative who had voted for Adams, and defeated 
many of them. They changed the complexion of Con- 
gress until the Adams administration was turned into a 
series of defeats. This they were able to do largely 
through the extension of the suffrage. 

When the Declaration of Independence declared 
the political equality of men, it was not thought wise 
to put the theory into practice. The suffrage was con- 
trolled by the states and was, in all save two, restricted 
to holders of property. Such had been the custom in 
England and the colonies. It is estimated that not 
more than one person in twenty-three had sufficient prop- 
erty to vote when Washington was elected President. 
Gradually, in state after state, new constitutions were 
formed which removed or lowered suffrage restrictions. 

Although thus securing the privilege of voting, the 
people had small share in the election of President and 
still less in determining the candidates to be voted upon. 
The makers of the Constitution questioned the judgment 
of the masses and therefore provided that the people 
should choose electors, presumably the best men in each 
community, who should meet and select the man in the 
United States best qualified to be President. But it was 
soon seen that electors could be chosen who would 
undoubtedly vote for a certain man, and in that indirect 
way the people have been in reality voting for the Presi- 
dent since the very first election. 

The Constitution allowed the several states to decide 
how these electors should be chosen, and the state 
legislatures seemed to furnish a ready agency. In the 
first election of Washington, the electors were chosen 



288 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

by the people in only three out of the eleven states. 
The President was thus twice removed from the direct 
choice of the people. Democracy has gained slowly by 
sloughing off old political forms and methods. For 
years the people slowly gain strength through evolu- 
tion, and then suddenly break through the upper 
stratum in what is called a political revolution. Such an 
upheaval came in 1800, as already described; another 
was preparing in 1824. 

In the election of 1824, the people as usual had no 
power in choosing candidates. Crawford had been 
named by a caucus of the members of Congress. That 
method had been invented, after the unanimous elec- 
tions of Washington, and was followed during the subse- 
quent elections to 1824. Yet the state legislatures felt 
themselves nearer to the people than Congress, and 
they began to nominate candidates. Adams was nomi- 
nated by the legislatures of several New England states ; 
Clay by Kentucky and four other states ; and Jackson 
by his own state of Tennessee and by Pennsylvania.^ 

No nominations were necessary for the campaign of 
1828. All were either "Jackson men" or "Adams 
men." No party names were known. The administra- 
tion papers, especially those that read their doom in the 
coming in of the masses, attacked the record of Jackson. 
They claimed that he " possessed only the bravery of a 
RuFFL\N and the warlike cunning of an Indian Chief. 
. . . CoNSTANTiNE was violent, uxorious, and a gambler : 

1 By 1840 this system of nominating by state legislatures had begun to 
give way to a nomination made by a convention of delegates chosen by the 
people of a state. This in turn was superseded by a national convention 
consisting of delegates chosen from the different states, a custom prevalent 
to the present day. 



AiVDREir JACKSON 



289 



Jackson is all this beside a Duellist and a Murderer." 
He would make a fine contrast to the polished, religious 
Adams, with "his Chicanery, — his Brawls, — his 
Swearing, — his Shooting and Daggering." He was 
called "the man of the Pistol and Dirk, the fireside 
Hyena of character, the Tennessee Slanderer, the 
Great Western Bluebeard." Pamphlets were printed 
giving the particulars of Jackson betting ^5000 in 1806 
on one of his race-horses and then killing the owner of 
the rival horse on the duelling field. When an editor 
contemplated putting mourning lines on his paper for 
Jackson's unfortunate opponent, that bully threatened 
any one found sympathizing with his victim. The 
pamphlets also described how General Jackson and his 
friends in 18 13 attacked Colonel Benton and his brother 
with pistojs and dag- 
gers, during which 
Jackson's arm was 
shattered by a ball. 
Thus they pictured 
the man who was 
proposed for the 
presidency instead 
of the polished 
gentleman, John 
Quincy Adams. 

The Jackson men 
ridiculed the piety 

of Adams, a piety which asked twenty thousand dollars 
in addition to the regular appropriation of fourteen thou- 
sand for furnishing the President's mansion. One-third 
of this money had been lavished, they said, on the apart- 



HIIZZA 

Cieii.Ja(*kson! 

^^ ITII TIIK 

YAMKEES! 



Campaign Po^tek of 1S2S 



290 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

ments of Adams's British wife and part in buying — 
Shades of Puritanism — a billiard table! Also $2613 had 
been spent for " Dry Goods." What did that mean ? 
No wonder that while most presidents have retired poor, 
this man had amassed a fortune. Also contrast the 
record of the two men. Jackson had always been a 
man of the people ; Adams was a descendant of the 
" well-born " and had "turned a complete political som- 
erset" to the Jeffersonians when he saw the Federalists 
losing power in Massachusetts. While Jackson was 
pledging his estate to raise money for his troops, Adams 
was investing his salary in Russian bonds. Jackson 
had resigned the governorship of Florida, declined a 
cabinet position under Monroe, and had always surren- 
dered his commission when he took off his sword ; Adams 
had been a public pensioner for almost a quarter of a 
century, must have received at least $200,000 in salaries, 
and had never resigned nor declined an office. 

When the Adams men called Jackson "half horse — 
half alligator," his followers accepted it as a tribute. 
The term had originated among the rougher element in 
the new west, who boasted that they were not of women 
born. The printing-presses were few in the Jackson 
country and the illiterates many ; hence they had re- 
course to the oldest campaign agency in the world — the 
song. One of the most popular began : 

" We are a hardy, free-born race, each man to fear a stranger, 
Whatever the game, we join the chase, despising toil and danger, 
And if a daring foe annoys, whatever his strength or force is. 
We'll show him that Kentucky boys are alligators-horses. 

'• I s'pose you've read it in the prints how Pakenham attempted. 
To make old Hickory Jackson wince, but soon his scheme repented ; 



ANDRE W JA CKSOiY 



291 



For we, with rifles ready cocked, thought such occasions kicky, 
And soon around the General flocked, the hunters from Kentucky." 

The Adams men accepted this challenge to make the 
issue on Jackson's war record. Pamphlets were issued 
describing how General Jackson had put to death sixteen 
helpless Indians on the morning after the battle of the 
Horse Shoe ; ^ how he arbitrarily invaded Spanish Flor- 
ida and put to death two Englishmen, Arbuthnot and 
Ambrister, whom he found there ; how the Secretary 




of War had suggested that he be court-martialled for his 
conduct ; how he had hoisted a British flag at St. Mark's 
and so decoyed four Indians on board and then hanged 
them ; how he had sworn by the Eternal to execute 
Woods, a volunteer, who had an altercation with an offi- 
cer while the army was near Mobile, and had done so. 



1 A rare pamphlet in the Library of Congress bears the title, " A 
Review of the l!attle of the Horse Shoe and of the Facts relating to the 
Killing of Sixteen Indians on the morning after the Battle by the Orders 
of Gen. Andrew Jackson." 



292 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Above all they dwelt upon Jackson putting to death 
six militiamen at New Orleans for having returned to 
their homes under the impression that they had been 
called out for three months' instead of six months' ser- 
vice. Handbills were circulated showing the six black 
coffins with descriptive stanzas beneath. One stanza 
runs : 

" See Six Black Coffins rang'd along, 

Six Graves before them made ; 

Webb, Lindsay, Harris, Lewis, Hunt, 

And Morrow kneel'd and pray'd." 

The only attack which touched the war hero was that 
aimed at his wife and her past history. It is a story al- 
most incomprehensible now, when the frontier with its 
unconventional life has passed away. Jackson, the young 
lawyer, crossing the mountains from his native Caro- 
lina to a pioneer life in western Tennessee, took lodg- 
ings with another young man in the side cabin of Mrs. 
Donelson, who lived with her deserted but not divorced 
daughter, Mrs. Robards, in the main cabin. The condi- 
tion of the woman, deserted by her jealous husband, 
appealed to the chivalrous nature and impulsive tem- 
perament of Jackson. Simply upon rumor that the hus- 
band had obtained a divorce from the legislature of 
the state of Virginia, Jackson married Mrs. Rob- 
ards. As a lawyer he should have been more careful. 
Even the later action of having a second and legal 
marriage ceremony after the divorce had been really 
granted could not amend his past carelessness. When 
he came into political life his enemies would not take 
into consideration the extenuating circumstances of the 
lack of communication on the border, the fierceness of 



ANDREW JACKSON 



293 



the loves and hates of the borderer, and the lack of a 
riffid standard of life. 








Coffin Handbill, Campaign of 1828 

The Adams papers in the campaign found a rich 
morsel in this " scandal." " Who is there in all the land 
that has a wife, sister, or daughter, that could be pleased 
to see Mrs. Jackson (Mrs. Robards that was) presiding in 
the drawing-room at Washington.? There is Pollution 
in the touch, there is Perdition in the Example of 
A Profligate Woman." Jackson writhed under these 
stings, but comforted himself with his coming revenge 
when this slandered woman should be the first lady in 
the land ; when her def amors must grant her the defer- 
ence due to a President's wife. As the campaign drew 
to a close and his election became assured, no prospect 
was as pleasing as his coming revenge. Mrs. Jackson, 
or " Aunt Rachel " as her friends called her, had been 
in Washington when her husband was senator. She 
was a woman not without a certain beauty, but falling 



294 '^HE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

short of the present standard by the defects of her 
border training and Ufe. She was said to be illiterate and 
fond of her fireside and her pipe. But to Jackson's faith- 
ful nature she was the embodiment of attractiveness. 

After Jackson's election had been assured, the people 
of Nashville prepared an elaborate dinner and ball for 
him and Mrs. Jackson before their departure for Wash- 
ington. On this occasion, kind women of that city pre- 
pared for the wife of the President-elect a gown more 
in keeping with her station than the ones she usually 
wore. At nine o'clock on the night prior to the recep- 
tion, Mrs. Jackson died. Rumor said that in a hotel at 
Nashville, while on a visit connected with the prepara- 
tion of the gown, she had overheard a comment upon 
the weight that her past record would be about the neck 
of her husband ; that she returned to the Hermitage in 
tears, and in a week was dead. Her husband sat by 
her body day and night unwilling to believe that fate 
had snatched from his hands the prize now that it was 
within his grasp. When he started on his lonely journey 
to Washington it was with a firm resolution to defend 
and protect all women against the tongue of slander. 
Only when one knows the story of Mrs. Jackson can 
one appreciate her husband's defence of Mrs. Eaton. ^ 

Down the Cumberland to the Ohio and up that stream 
to Pittsburg by boat, and across the mountains by " a 
plain two-horse wagon," came the presidential party. At 
every city there was an artillery salute, but from any 

1 Peggy O'Neal was the daughter of a Washington tavern-keeper. She 
married Major Eaton a few weeks before he became Jackson's -Secretary 
of War. Some gossip concerning them, which had been current, was 
renewed by the politicians. Jackson defended her, even to the extent of 
disciplining his niece and threatening the Dutch minister. 



ANDREW ' J A CKSOJV 295 

further courtesies the recent affliction of the President ex- 
cused him. He arrived quite unexpectedly at Gadsby's 
tavern in Washington on the morning of February 12. 
In the afternoon a salute was fired and another at sunset. 

As the 4th of March approached, the newspapers 
announced " a great concourse of strangers in the city 
of every degree in life." They were Jackson men, who 
seemed to fear that their hero would be again tricked 
out of his rights. They proposed to see " Old Hickory " 
in the "White House." Many had come in carts and 
on horseback for hundreds of miles. The aristocratic 
office-holders compared them to the barbarians descend- 
ing on ancient Rome. To Webster they appeared to 
feel a relief as if the country had been freed from some 
awful danger. It was democracy coming into its own. 

The committee of arrangements announced that there 
would be no military array on the inauguration day but 
such as was voluntary. The new President was to be 
"surrounded by no prretorian guard." In truth the 
only military company in Washington was commanded 
by an Adams office-holder, who refused to call it out to 
grace these barbarians. Two companies of artillery 
were hastily formed to fire salutes as the President, 
escorted by the Congressional committee, a few old 
Revolutionary soldiers, and a great rabble, went from 
Gadsby's to the Capitol. Ten thousand people " gave 
salutations" when he appeared on the eastern portico 
of the building to read his very brief address. They 
swept away like whipcord a wire cable stretched to 
keep the multitude back from the " privileged class." 
Later, amidst more salutes, "Old Hickory " was escorted 
by the throng to his future place of residence. 



296 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

That night came the reception. For hours were heard 
the crash of glass and the breaking of furniture as the 
crowd surged through the President's mansion, eager to 
see their representative in possession of his own. A 
Massachusetts man said : " I never saw such a mixture. 
The reign of King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad 
to escape from the scene as soon as possible." Not- 
withstanding" the warning published by a man who had 
lost a purse of $400 at the theatre the night before, the 
"cut-purses " were busy and but few arrested. A Jack- 
son newspaper acknowledged, " At the Mansion of the 
President, the Sovereign People were a little uproari- 
ous, indeed, but it was anything but a malicious spirit." 

The next day a heavy rain drove away some of the 
spectators, but many remained. They thought there 
ought to be " a clean sweep " of the office-holders instead 
of stopping with the President. ^ They were said to have 
" flocked here in crowds in the vain hope of reward for 
services which they believe themselves to have rendered 
during the campaign." " The situation of the Presi- 
dent himself is far from enviable." Other newspapers 
reported that the office-seekers intruded upon his private 
hours and " perforated " the whole of his mansion to 
get a peep at him.^ Webster pronounced the multitude 

^ The Baltimore Patriot said that when a gentleman apologized for 
making such a lengthy call on the President, the latter replied, " Sit down, 
sir, and stay. I like to have you. You are the I'lrst man who has come to 
see me without asking for an office." 
2 " Turn out I turn out ! 

They are rogues no doubt; 

And honest men and true are come to put them all to rout. 

Why the d— 1 should they stay 

In their seats a single day 

For noble fellows like ourselves they all should clear away." 

— The Massachusetts Journal, 1S29. 



ANDREW ' J A Ck'SOAT 297 

too many to be fed without a miracle. They construed 
the promise of reform in Jackson's inaugural address to 
mean turning out the professional office-holders. " The 
power of removal," said a Virginia paper, " is founded 
on the idea that no radical reform of abuses of the 
government was to be expected from gentlemen who 
were hacknied in the abuses of office and opposed to 
the cause of Jackson and reform." The Jackson organ 
in Washington promised that the President " would 
reward his friends and punish his enemies." ^ 

The Adams men were soon in a panic. They had 
taken comfort from a resurrected letter from Jackson to 
Monroe written years before in which he advised against 
the removal of officers. At a farewell dinner given to 
Clay on the day after the inauguration, that departing 
statesman had proposed the toast, " Let us never despair 
of the American Republic." But what was the republic 
to men who saw the political guillotine before their eyes .-* 
Fifteen postmasters were dismissed in New Hampshire 
in ten weeks ; yet, when a dismissed clerk in Washing- 
ton committed suicide, a New Hampshire newspaper 
said, " The People bid the Executioner go on in the 
good work of reform even if some do bleed by their 
own hands." 

^ The Central Hickory Club summed up the situatiein from its stand- 
point in a circular issued in 1832: 

When Gen. Jackson came into power there were in office in this city: 

Of his enemies about 288 

Of his friends about 71 

Majority of enemies 217 

At the end of 1831, the relative strength of parties was as follows: 

Gen. Jackson's enemies 173 

His friends 140 

Majority of enemies t,^ 



298 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



Andrew Jackson has always borne the odium of the 
father of the spoils system, but a larger view will see 
that system as a result of this democratic revolution. 
To say that Jackson discovered in it any moral wrong 
would be to ascribe to this old Indian fighter a sentiment 
of to-day which has taken years to build up and is held 
only by the highest civic type. His standard, as formed 
by his war training, was embodied later in the immortal 
saying of Marcy, " To the victor belong the spoils." 
With such men in power, personal encounters were not 
uncommon. The general rule was to employ fists for 
ruffians and the duel for gentlemen. The practice of 
"posting " men by handbills was not uncommon.^ 

Jackson never contemplated himself in the role 
assumed by Jefferson — the political saviour of his coun- 
try ; but he had 
" been called forth 
reluctantly to re- 
form the abuses 
under which his 
people labored." 
Whenever he 
found such abuse 
he would destroy 
it. He soon found 
one in the second 
United States bank. Adopted by Congress at the close 
of the war of 1812 to restore the national finances, 
and chartered for twenty years, this great corporation, 
on a first capital of $35,000,000, earned more than 
$3,000,000 annually. Its headquarters were located 

1 Two of these handbills are shown in illusttalions in this chapter. 



r - - 




■^ 


To tlie 


Public. 




1 pill)li>l( (iclHTMl \t\VV 

GHKIv.N lo ihr >Mnl(l. as a 
Srotnufrrl -.iin] :i C'riri'itl. 
.IIS. u AT.so> mint. 

<»r >«•« 1 ork. 

\\ :,-.Lii,-iui.. IVbn.an f.. IS.Vl. 






.- V 


^- 



ANDREW JACKSON 299 

in Philadelphia, with twenty-five branch banks in 
various cities, employing over five hundred people. 
Its bank-notes were accepted at par the country over. 
Jackson had known little about the bank until a quar- 
rel concerning the appointment of its officers reached 
him. Now a bank is always an object of suspicion 
among the masses of the people, and the methods of 
the banker are always suspected. Those who have 
not the faculty of making money suspect those who 
have. In his second message, Jackson raised the in- 
quiry whether the United States could not manage a 
bank exclusively and get all the profits where it now 
held one-fifth the stock and received only that share 
of the profits. Three times in as many annual mes- 
sages this suggestion was made. 

In 1832, Clay brought before Congress a petition for 
rechartering the bank, although it had four years yet to 
run. It must have time to close up its affairs, he said, 
if this hostile suggestion of the President should be 
adopted. Immediately the Jackson men brought for- 
ward twenty-two charges against the bank, chiefly of 
using undue influence in the national and state legis- 
latures, and of accommodating politicians with loans. 
Nevertheless the bill to recharter passed both houses, 
but was vetoed by the President on the ground that it 
was a monopoly. " Many of our rich men have not 
been content with equal protection and equal benefits, 
but have besought us to make them richer by the act 
of Congress." It was the old Jeffersonian protest 
against privilege legislation. 

Once aroused against the bank, the wrath of Jackson 
knew no bounds. He paid his bills in gold instead of 



300 



THE MEM WHO MADE THE NATION 



United States bank-notes, and his followers aroused fur- 
ther distrust by calling constant attention to the ninety- 
five counterfeit bank-bills which had been detected. 
The President now ordered the receivers of the public 
money to make no further deposits with the branches 
of the bank and to draw out whatever remained of the 
$8,000,000 annually deposited. He also deprived the 




Of Ao. .57, l'>allklill-^fr('('t, beiiiu 



" Posting " an Enemy 



United States bank of distributing the pension money. 
But the United States continued to receive money and 
there was no place to put it. A treasury in a treasury 
building had not yet been thought of. Why not let the 
smaller banks throughout the country, those which could 
with difficulty compete with the great monopoly, have 
the use of this money .■* 

The banks thus chosen were immediately named 
" Jackson's pet banks." Under their unexpected for- 
tune, they began to speculate. Jackson detested paper 



ANDREI I ' J A CA'SOjV 



301 



money, but his action brought out a flood of it. Banks 
sprang up Hke mushrooms.^ From 1834 to 1836 the 
banking capital increased $81,000,000. The reaction 
was sure to come, and it brought the panic of 1837. 
Even this was precipitated by the President issuing an 
arbitrary order that the land offices should refuse to 
accept anything save specie in payment for the public 
lands. This panic Jackson bequeathed to his protege, 
Van Buren, with the presidency. 

The disastrous results of this meddhng with the 
national bank brought no discredit to the President in 



■ 


ipiv 




1 














Medal on Jackson destroying the Bank 

the opinion of his followers. They thanked God that 
he knew nothing of finance since then he would be 
honest with them. But the affair formed such an 
example of amateur juggling with national finances that 
no one has since dared to repeat it. The chief E.xecutive 
had learned a lesson. 

^ This stanza was copied extensively in the opposition papers : 
" He managed the people, he governed the Banks; 
And played while in office all sorts of queer pranks; 
He killed the old monster, and then with a grin, 
He got many little ones of the same kin." 



302 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

As will be described in the next chapter, the always 
smouldering contest on the relative power of the state 
and national governments had broken forth under Jack- 
son. It was, to a certain extent, made possible by the 
defeat of the New Englanders or Adams men and the 
election of Jackson. The triumphant southerners 
wished to reap advantage of their victory and bring 
the national government back to its restricted origin. 
Opportunity was given in the tariff legislation which 
had imposed higher duties on coarse stuffs, such as 
clothing for slaves, until it was felt in the south to be 
unbearable, and received the title, " the tariff of abomi- 
nations." 

The state of South Carolina, the state of Calhoun and 
Hayne, took the lead and prepared to resist the collec- 
tion of the duty in its ports. The action was grounded 
by Calhoun in a doctrine foreshadowed by the Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99, but now 
elaborated into a specific remedy. " When the United 
States government transcends the powers given to it by 
the states, any state has the right to declare such law 
null and void and forbid its enforcement within her 
borders." Calhoun and his followers in "nullification" 
wished to trace this doctrine back to Jefferson, the 
father of democracy. The election of Jackson recalled 
Jefferson afresh to the public mind. He had died only 
three years before. New editions of his writings were 
published. His library was being sold at auction in 
Washington when Jackson was inaugurated. 

A great celebration of his birthday was planned for 
the dining room of the " Indian Queen " in Washington, 
April 13, 1830. The guests assembled at five o'clock 



ANDREW JACKSON 



303 



and found a list of twenty-four toasts. The fourth was 
indicative of the spirit running through the whole : 
" The Kentucky Resolutions of '98 : drawn by the same 



A-fD '..^■•■'0^2i-;ir^ 



CY Tllli SPECIAL COMMITTEE 



nr)\ St: or Ri:riiESF.,\T.iTrrt:s. 



THE TARirP; 






Sol 111 ( ■ \k( ii i\ \ Tmii I 1' \mii!1.1':t 



hand which drew the Declaration of Independence, a 
practical illustration of Jefferson's republican principles, 
and a correct definition of the relative powers of the 
State and Federal governments." In a later toast the 



304 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

action of Governor Troup, of Georgia, in resisting 
the United States government in the case of the Ind- 
ians, was Hnked with the Resolutions of '98, " He planted 
upon her borders the standard of States' Rights." 

President Jackson arrived at the beginning of the 
banquet and sat through the regular toasts and speeches. 
As a native of South Carolina, he was supposed to be in 
sympathy with the sentiment of the occasion. Thirty 
years before he had written to a candidate: " Have you 
always been an admirer of State authorities .'* Will you 
banish the dangerous doctrine of implication 1 " But he 
was now the President of the United States and had 
taken an oath to execute its laws and support its au- 
thority. One may imagine the increasing wrath with 
which he heard through the four hours of the regular 
toasts and speeches these attacks upon the power he 
represented, and one may image the satisfaction he felt 
when called upon for the first volunteer toast. Every 
ear was strained. The promoters of the banquet, who 
hoped to commit the chief executive to an approval of 
the resistance of South Carolina, expected such a senti- 
ment as, "South Carolina: may the Federal Union 
under the principles of '98, remember the rights of a 
sovereign state." ^ But upon the astonished listeners 
fell the words, " Our Federal Union : it must be pre- 
scrved." 

Perhaps no one was more surprised than Calhoun, but 
none was less daunted. Called upon as Vice-President 
for the second volunteer toast, he gave, " The Union : 

1 In December, 1829, at a dinner in Charleston, South Carolina, this 
toast was "drunk with cheers": "The President and Vice-President of 
the United States: .South Carolina gave them to the Union for the com- 
mon benefit; she hopes everything from their wisdom and patriotism." 



ANDREW JACKSON 305 

next to our liberty the most dear ; may we all remember 
that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights 
of the States and distributing equally the benefit and 
burden of the Union." Here was the essence of the 
doctrine of nullification. A Virginian also offered the 
sentiment, " Our Federal Union must be preserved, by 
doing equal justice to all its parts." 

The President departed soon after his toast, the Penn- 
sylvanians followed, and many others withdrew to the 
anterooms to discuss the unfortunate incident, but the 
banquet continued until near morning, the account fill- 
ing the unusual space of eleven newspaper columns. 

The opposition editors claimed that the President's 
toast was a challenge to the nullificationists. " It was 
as much as to say, 'You may complain of the tariff and 
perhaps with reason ; but so long as it is the law it 
shall as certainly be maintained as that my name is 
Andrew Jackson.' " No one who knew the stubborn 
nature of Jackson could doubt that. Nevertheless, Cal- 
houn persisted, and South Carolina passed a nullification 
ordinance. Governor Hayne made a vow to resist " if 
the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the 
footsteps of an invader." Buttons bearing a palmetto 
tree appeared by thousands, and medals were struck 
bearing the words, " John C. Calhoun, First President 
of the Southern Confederacy." There was already one 
President, and he was the President of the United 
States. There was no room for two. On his death-bed 
he is said to have lamented his dereliction in not hang- 
ing , the other "president" as a "traitor." However 
much a southern man or states' rights man, he was 
above all the President. He ordered the revenue col- 



3o6 



THE MEN" WHO MADE THE NATION" 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PROCLAMATION 



PRESIDENT OF the UNITED STATES, 



WASHINGTON. DEC. lOIB. Hit 



lectors in South Carolina to employ gunboats if neces- 
sary to collect the duties under the tariff, quietly sent 
the general of the army, Scott, to Charleston, and 
shifted land and naval forces to have all in readiness. 

He likened the 
situation to a bag 
of meal open at 
both ends. " Pick 
it up in the mid- 
dle or endwise, 
and it will run 
out. I must tie 
the bag and save 
the country." To 
the same listener^ 
he said, " Dale, 
they are trying 
me here ; you will 
witness it ; but 
by the God of 
heaven, I will up- 
hold the laws." 
Yet he tempered 
his measures with 
a proclamation to 
South Carolina 
beginning, " Fel- 
low-citizens of my native state,*' in which he appealed 
to them not to incur the odium of treason by resisting 
the execution of the laws. 

The effect in the northern states was magical. A 

1 Sec the Autobiography of Gen. Nathan Dale. 



nonlion: 
JOHN MILLER, HENRIETTA STREET, 



trio Om Sam^ai Sofiw^ 



Copy of Jackson's South Carolina 
Proclamation 



AND I^ Ell ■ JACKSON- 307 

southern man, a borderer, a man never in touch with 
centralizing tendencies, Jackson had quickened the 
national feeling as had not been done since the days of 
Hamilton. Union meetings were held in various cities, 
and the section formerly at enmity with Jackson sud- 
denly became his supporter. 

Certain ones who indulge in conjecture are inclined 
to believe that if Jackson had been allowed to bring to a 
close this contest with his native state, the country 
might have been spared a later experience with nulli- 
fication and its offspring — secession. But Clay, the 
great pacificator, came forward, with a mathematical 
compromise by which the objectionable tariff was scaled 
down gradually for ten years, and the contest was be- 
queathed to posterity. South Carolina, however, never 
forgot the " Force bill " passed to give power to the Pres- 
ident, and she patiently bided her time for nearly thirty 
years until she found herself sufficiently supported to 
attempt secession. 

Perhaps the good feeling so unexpectedly manifested 
in New England toward the President persuaded him to 
listen to an invitation which came to him in March, 1833. 
" The Republican citizens of Boston would feel proud 
to exhibit to the victor at New Orleans the plains of 
Lexington and the trenches of Bunker Hill." There 
was no political reason why the President should further 
endanger his feeble health by touring the country. He 
had been triumphantly inaugurated for a second term. 
Some thought his purpose was to exhibit the " heir 
apparent," Van Buren, who was_ to accompany the 
party ; others imagined the old war hero coveted a 
revenge in thus penetrating the enemy's country, con- 



3o8 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



Thr''" piu ck, 0U8- 




fident of winning their hearts as he had won others by 
the charm of his personahty. In the poHtical campaigns, 
he had been caricatured by his enemies in the eastern 

states until people were pre- 
pared to believe anything 
about him. " Captivating 
as he renders himself with 
his bandanna handkerchief, 
his frock coat, his amiable 
condescensions and the fas- 
cination of his barroom and 
public talk," said one news- 
paper. Opposed to this de- 
scription was an item which 
went the rounds of the press 
written from Washington at 
the time of the inaugura- 
tion, describing him " not 
the tall, muscular, rawboned, 
weather-beaten, and stern-looking soldier. He is not 
much if any above middle size, of rather weak and deli- 
cate form, very thin flesh, not erect or commanding in 
figure. His eyes are dim or weeping and obscured by 
spectacles. In his dress he is exceedingly plain — 
rather negligent. In his manners, he is courteous and 
engaging. He would be taken for a Tennessee Farmer 
rather than the Chief Magistrate of a Republic." 

In May, the " Grand Cavalcade " started for Balti- 
more.^ As it moved from city to city, day after day 
brought out the flags, the processions, the banners, the 

^ Two of the many cartoons put forth on the tour are reproduced on 
pages 309 and 313. They are in the Library of Congress. 



i;o ii, ><• Cripj)!'"; 
Democratic Ticket. 

FOR PRESIDENT, ' 

Martin Van, Buren. 

FOR VICK PRESIDENT. 

RICHARD M. JOHNSON 

OHIO IlLECTOMI 

iOH.V M. GOODF.NOW, 
OTHNIEL EfJOKER, 
JACOB FELTER, 
JAMF,S B. CAMERON* 
DAVID S. DAVIS, *• 
JAMES nFE,_^ 



Electoral Ticket of 1836 



310 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

thousands struggling to reach the hand of the people's 
President. In the old Independence Hall at Phila- 
delphia, he was obliged to recline on a couch whilst a 
multitude still struggled to get the coveted hand-shake. 
So great became the crush, that some leaped from the 
windows for safety. The venerable Bisiiop White, chap- 
lain of the old Continental Congress, struggled with the 
crowd to pay his respects, but retired defeated. 

The Adams papers much lamented this exhibition of 
sycophancy, this "almost man worship." One said, 
" Many a time did President Adams arrive at our 
wharves unannounced and walk up from the wharf 
almost unattended, like any other citizen of the repub- 
lic." But Adams was not democracy's hero. The 
friendly newspapers said that Jackson's hand grasp 
was something more than Mr. Adams's "pump-handle 
shake." 

Whenever possible, Jackson rode on horseback in the 
processions. In Philadelphia, for five hours he was in 
the saddle, and even the opposition newspapers admitted 
that he was a " superb horseman." At New York, 
" many persons did not scruple to run between the legs 
of the prancing animal at the imminent risk of being 
trodden down so that they might grasp the hand of 
their beloved President or even touch the hem of his 
garments." The bedstead in which he slept was sup- 
ported by four marble columns with a mirror at each 
corner. The counterpane and pillow cases were made 
of figured white satin, trimmed with silver fringe. 
" Nothing is too good for the man who saved our 
country." 

As he entered New England a cooler air was encoun- 



bORN TO COMMAND 




KHSPD ANDRirW" THE FIKST. 



A Cartoon of the Campaign of 1812 



312 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

tered. A Boston newspaper congratulated the people 
because they had made " no such ridiculous or servile 
exhibitions of sycophancy as at Philadelphia and New 
York." It thought there was too much military display 
for a civic officer. But civic display was not wanting. 
As the President entered Providence " mounted on a 
beautiful white palfrey," he rode under arches made of 
hickory boughs. As he approached Norwich, a young 
lady placed a wreath of roses on his head. At Lowell, 
three thousand young women, operatives in the mills, 
dressed in white and wearing different colored sashes, 
formed an escort. School children were drawn up at 
the roadside to see the President pass by. In Boston, 
the " girls in white dresses and the boys in white under- 
clothes and dark jackets " waited in the churches for 
hours to form a procession. One lad is said to have 
burst into tears on beholding the object of their atten- 
tions because he was only a man. 

Throughout Jackson displayed that gentleness and 
courtesy so inconsistent with the stories of his cruelty 
and revengeful spirit. Instead of devouring children, 
as some imagined this southwestern ogre would do, he 
kissed them and presented gold pieces to the proud 
mothers, according to the newspaper accounts. To a 
woman who had walked from Germantown to Phila- 
delphia to .see him and had been accorded a private 
view, he was quoted as saying, " My dear woman, had I 
known it, I would cheerfully have met you halfway." 
He tarried in New Haven over Sunday, attending the 
Trinity Church service in the forenoon, the North Pres- 
byterian in the afternoon, and the Methodist in the 
evening. His horsemanship won especially the hearts 



ANDREW JACKSON 



313 



of the ladies. " He completely eclipsed all the young 
sparks on the review," wrote a Boston reporter. " He 
sat on his horse as though he had been a part of the 
animal, waving his hat on either side as he passed the 
multitude." 

New England and the higher class of the north 
generally were receiving not democracy's hero but the 
President who had scotched " nullification." He was 
not allowed to forget this fact. He rode under banner 




Cartoon on Jackson's Tour 

after banner bearing his famous toast, " The Union : it 
must be preserved," or, " The Union : it must and shall 
be preserved." ^ The governor of Massachusetts referred 
in his address to "that National Sovereignty and Inde- 
pendence which you so valiantly defended when assailed 
by Foreign Foes and that Union under the Constitution 
which . . . you no less triumphantly asserted on a late 

^ In the official account of the banquet, the toast of Jackson was 
worded as given on page 304. In many other accounts the latter part 
was changed to " It must and shall be preserved." 



314 THE MEIV WHO MADE THE N ATI OX 

memorable occasion against iiitcDial Disaffection and 
Disloyalty^ Human nature could not be proof against 
such adulation. When the spokesman for the select- 
men of Roxbury closed his welcome with the sentiment, 

"And may Jiis powerful arm long remain nerved 
Who said The Umox — it must be preserved," 

the general was said to have replied most emphatically, 
" It shall be preserved. Sir, as long as there is a nerve 
in it." 

This prolonged excitement soon told on a body en- 
feebled by arduous Indian campaigns. The President 
was able to visit Bunker Hill, where the details of the 
battle were described to him, and he was presented with 
"two harmless memorials of the 17th of June, encased 
in a box." But because of illness he had to forego 
Lexington, the docking of the Constitution, and a con- 
clave of the Grand Lodge of Masons, to which order 
Jackson was devotedly attached. Leaving Boston after 
several days' illness, he reached Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, where he was presented some goods woven from 
the cotton grown on his own plantation. From this 
point word came that the tour was abandoned and that 
the President was hastening home by the quickest route. 

Various rumors arose. Some said he was disgusted 
with the strife between his own party men, who thought 
they had a monopoly on him, and the general populace, 
who had been won by his personality and now wished 
to do him honor. The administration newspaper at 
Washington when he reached home said that he feared 
further exposure to the northeast winds. The opposi- 
tion hinted that he had become alarmed at the feeling 



ANDRE IV J A CKSOAT 3 1 5 

aroused among his old friends in the south and west by 
this flirting with the enemy. A Richmond paper longed 
for the days of a real democratic President like Jefferson, 
who when he had occasion to go to the Capitol, went 
alone, attired in his red breeches and white waistcoat, 
and tied his horse at the rack. " Imagine him like his 
snobbish successor, making a tour through his provinces, 
aping the fashions of European potentates, surrounded 
by courtiers and dependants." Jackson's triumphal 
tour was compared with the contemporary progress of 
George IV. to Dublin and Edinburgh. But his greatest 
offence was in accepting the degree of Doctor of Laws 
from that hotbed of aristocracy and Federalism — 
Harvard College. 

His defenders pointed to a similar honor conferred 
upon President Monroe, but the critics replied that 
Monroe was a college man and deserved it. Jackson 
had never before seen the outside of a college. How 
could he reply to the President's Latin address as was 
customary .<* Indeed, this part of the ceremony caused 
much conjecture. It was rumored that, as in so many 
instances, the President would rise to the occasion. 
Major Jack Downing said that he nodded his head to 
the address, but possibly at the wrong time since some 
of the students tittered. It was agreed that he made 
no response save a bow.^ 

1 "Major Jack Downing" (Scha Smitli), in his hurlesfiue description 
of the tour, wrote that at Camijridge some students took him into an adja- 
cent room and conferred on him the degree of A.S.S., which they assured 
him stood for "amazin' smart skolar." A counterfeit Major described the 
President visiting Downingville. " ' You must gin 'em a little Lattin, Doc- 
tor,' says I. Here he off hat agin and says, ' E jiluribus unum,' says he, 
'my friends — sine qua non ! ' " 



3i6 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



However, said the opposition, the degree of Doctor of 
Laws may not be so inconsistent, because the President 
is so very fond of doctoring the laws. A South Carolina 
newspaper denounced "the triumphal entry of General 
Blowblubbcr and his kitchen cabinet among the lick 
spittles of the North — a sorry scene of mutual degrada- 
tion." A toast was offered in the same state — 

" Let slaves bow down and kiss his toes 
Freeman defy — and pull his nose." ^ 




Lawrence's Attack on Jackson 

Colonel David Crockett, of Tennessee, who had served 
under the General in the Indian wars, insisted upon the 

1 Lieutenant Randolph, a dismissed naval officer, once tried to pull 
Jackson's nose. A lithograph of the attempt of Richard Lawrence to 
shoot the President is preserved in the museum of the Pennsylvania 
Historical Society. Jackson refused to believe that he was insane but 
suspected a political motive for the act. 



ANDRE W JA CKSOiV 3 1 7 

floor of Congress, that he had been a Jackson man until 
Jackson had turned into a Van Buren man. In a speech 
in Philadelphia he told " the story of the red cow," 
justifying his desertion of the ex-Dcmocrat. ^ When 
Crockett reached Boston, he refused to visit "Cam- 
bridge where the big college or university is; where 
they keep feady-made titles or nicknames to give peo- 
ple. . . . There had been one doctor made from Ten- 
nessee already, and I had no wish to put on the cap and 
bells." 

Perhaps the gain in new constituency would have off- 
set the loss of the old if opportunity had been given of 
testing it in a third election. Certainly Jackson is the 
one President upon whom opinion is unanimous as to 
the possibility of a third term if he had so desired it. 
His refusal assured the permanence of the limitation 
established by common consent. His nomination had 
been a rebuke to the professional office-holding in the 
nation ; his election was a return of power to the peo- 
ple ; his interference with the national finances was a 
deterring example ; his attitude toward nullification was 
the temporary salvation of the Union, although he after- 
wards tried to explain it away ; his triumphal tour was 
a fortunate harmonizing of the lower and the upper, the 
newer and the older classes, which healed the breach 
otherwise likely to result from the political revolt of the 
people in his election. 

^ A farmer, teaching his son to plough, told him to plough across the 
field to the red cow. " lie kept a ploughing and she kept a walking all 
day, and at night they had the worst looking field you ever saw. I fol- 
lowed Jackson as long as he went straight, but when he began to go this 
and that way, 1 wouldn't follow him any longer." 



CHAPTER X 

DANIEL WEBSTER, THE DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION 

So fallen ! so lost ! the light withdrawn 

Which once he wore ! -' 

The glory from his gray hairs gone 
Forevermore ! 

— Whittier on Wei5sti-:k, 1850. 

Thou shouldst have lived to feel below 
Thy feet Disunion's fierce upthrow, — 
No stronger voice than thine had then 
Called out the utmost might of men. 
Breaking the spell about the wound 
Like the green withes that Samson bound ; 
Redeeming in one effort grand. 
Thyself and thy imperilled land ! 

— Whittier on Webster, 1861. 

The middle period of national growth had now hecn 
reached, when it was possible to recognize certain 
Union-making elements. The consent of Washington 
to assume the leadership, the show of national force 
in putting down the "whiskey rebellion," and gratitude 
toward the central government for paying the Revolu- 
tionary debts of the respective states had a fitting close 
in the voluntary retirement of the war hero and the 
peaceful inauguration of his successor. Part of the 
revenue collected by the national government had been 
spent by it in improving means of communication and 

318 



DANIEL WEBSTER 319 

providing for the safety of commerce. Jefferson's elec- 
tion gave the masses a confidence that they were not 
to be barred from power in the Union. His purchase 
of Louisiana and his coercion during the embargo, no 
less than his suppression of Burr's expedition, strength- 
ened the power whose encroachment he so much feared. 
Burr's fiasco settled forever the possibility of a division 
of the Union between east and west along the line of 
the dividing mountains. 

The pride of the people in the city of Washington, 
although the capital grew very slowly, could not be 
ignored. It was the independent seat of an indepen- 
dent government, under neither the jurisdiction nor the 
protection of any state.^ In it the highest court of the 
nation sat, giving decision after decision which declared 
the supremacy of the Union over the states in the 
unexpressed powers.^ The national government was 
visible to the people in the branches of the two United 
States banks,^ and in the tariffs on imported goods which 
Congress changed from time to time at will. 

Many of these actions of the central power were 
undoubtedly departures from the thoughts of the fathers 
when they conjectured the future scope of the Federal 
agency. Yet the fathers could not possibly have imag- 
ined the development of the country, the expansion of 

1 This was due to the foresight of the framers of the Constitution. (Art. 
I., Sec. 8, Par. 17.) A lithograph (1S48) is reproduced on the next page. 

2 These " formative cases " may be studied in the Supreme Court reports 
and in any constitutional history. The principal ones of the early period 
are : McColloch vs. Maryland, Chisolm vs. Georgia, Fletcher vs. Peck, 
United States vs. Peters, and Marbury vs. Madison. 

3 The first bank existed from 1791 to iSii; the second, from 1816 to 
1836. They were joint stock enterprises, in which the United States was a 
shareholder. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 32 1 

territory and population, and the increase of trade, 
which had made these departures necessary and caused 
them to be supported by a majority of the people. 
That they should cause alarm was very natural ; that 
a protest was demanded equally so. South Carolina, 
noting the increasing number of her homes deserted by 
emigrants to the western country, and ascribing the 
cause to the withdrawal of capital under the burden of 
the high tariff, had assumed the leadership once held by 
Virginia, and inaugurated resistance to the tariff-mak- 
ing power. Calhoun became her spokesman. He was 
not a large slave owner and would not be heavily 
oppressed by the tariff, but he gave himself up to his 
state and to the southern slavery interests, although 
thereby he endangered his chances of national prefer- 
ment through the increasing strength of the anti-slavery 
sentiment. To meet this danger threatening his South 
Carolina as well as the other states, he revived and 
formulated more clearly the nullification doctrine of the 
Kentucky resolutions of 1799, as described in a pre- 
ceding chapter.! 

This increasing power of the national government 
being once recognized and its danger realized, the 
oricrinal intent of the founders as well as the nature of 
the Constitution itself was sure to be discussed in the 
debates in Congress. It was precipitated most unex- 
pectedly in the Senate in December, 1829, through a 
resolution offered by Foote, of Connecticut, that inquiry 
should be made as to the advisability of offering for 
sale any more of the public lands until more of the sev- 
enty-two million acres already surveyed and offered had 

Y 1 In Chapter VII, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 323 

been sold. Benton, of Missouri, the accepted champion 
of the western lands, replied that the unsold land was 
largely refuse and swamp ; that settlers should be 
encouraged by opening new lands ; that only in this 
way could the best blood be secured for the new coun- 
try. In the second week of the general debate on this 
question, Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, the recog- 
nized spokesman of Calhoun and his nullification doc- 
trine, accused the so-called " American system " of being 
the father of this idea of not opening more western 
land since " it wanted for its factories that low and 
degraded population which infests the cities and towns 
of Europe . . . and will work for the lowest wages. It 
could overcome this need only by preventing the draw- 
ing off this population from the manufacturing states." 
It had brought about " a manufactory of paupers to 
make rich proprietors of woollen and cotton factories." 
In this combination of interests, Hayne saw a dangerous 
growth of the Union, which was being, consolidated for 
selfish purposes.^ 

Hayne was the son of a Revolutionary soldier, pos- 
sessed of a winning personality, and a man high in the 
counsels of his state. He was the most dashing orator 
in the Senate, perfectly fearless, and with sustaining con- 
fidence. He was much more polished, more judicious, 
and more popular than Benton. To his attack, there- 
fore, a reply must be made. There was no question upon 
the choice of a defender for manufacturing New England. 

1 One of the cartoons of the day, which is shown on tlie opposite page, 
represents Daniel Webster playing a hand-organ and assisting Henry Clay 
in his great American system. The effect of Clay's project is suggested in 
the American people as a cage of monkeys. Andrew Jackson, entering 
the room with his white hat, pronounces the whole thing a humbug. 



A 



324 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT I ON 

The issue was far from a part of the daily routine of 
debate. Indeed, it penetrated the inmost parts of the 
national existence. Its words would later become deeds. 
For such a task nature seemed to have reserved Daniel 
Webster. His soul revelled in lofty themes, far above 
the average politician of his time. His imagination 
framed the possibility and trend of future events. Im- 
practical and negligent in business, lacking the high 
moral nature of the people he represented, he was 
a strange instrument to word the theory upon which 
one section of the people would wage war on another 
section thirty years later. 

Webster had not reached Washington until the ses- 
sion was almost a month old, and he was occupied with 
a case then being heard in the Supreme Court. How- 
ever handicapped, he was still a New England man, and 
he arose immediately to reply to Hayne, but an adjourn- 
ment postponed his speech until the following day. The 
increased attendance the next day showed that the event 
of the session had begun, although few realized that the 
opposing theories on the nature of the government were 
to be represented in flesh and blood. Sections and the- 
ories now coincided, and a dispute over the past record 
of the one was to grow into a contest over the merits of 
the other. The attitude of Massachusetts and the south 
toward the west was to be lost sight of in the Union 
versus the individual states. It was to be a mental 
combat, free from the brutality of the old gladiatorial 
shows ; yet, unfortunately, but the prologue to a mortal 
struggle thirty years later. 

Webster's reply was a calm, scholarly history of the 
western land question. His eloquence was ponderous, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 325 

his gestures few, his cool manner a strong contrast to 
his nervous opponent. Only once did he notice the 
great question of consolidation raised by Hayne. " I 
am a Unionist. ... I would strengthen the ties that 
hold us together." 

Hayne could scarcely wait for " an opportunity of 
returning the shot." He insisted that the debate should 
not be postponed because of his antagonist's engage- 
ment in the Supreme Court. Webster, with good effect, 
folded his arms and in his sonorous voice exclaimed : 
" Let the discussion proceed, I am ready. I am ready 
nozv to receive the gentleman's fire." For parts of two 
days, Hayne repelled the " uncalled-for and unprovoked 
attack " on the south and made a bitter personal show- 
ing of the "unpatriotic" record of New England and 
Webster in the embargo of 1809 and the war of 18 12. 
Webster afterward said that to gain this material "the 
vicinity of my former residence was searched, as with 
a lighted candle. New Hampshire was explored from 
the mouth of the Merrimack to the White Hills." 

In his reply, Hayne had the sympathy and support 
of three-fourths of the Senate. Even Vice-President 
Calhoun, the presiding officer, was said to have sent 
suggestive notes to him by the pages. He was ready 
to meet Webster on the Union question. "Who, then, 
are the friends of the Union t Those who confine the 
Federal Government strictly within the limits prescribed 
by the Constitution ; who would preserve to the States 
and the People all powers not expressly delegated ; 
who would make this a Federal and not a National 
Union. . . . And who are its enemies } Those who 
are in favor of consolidation ; who are constantly steal- 



326 THE MEN WHO MADE- THE NATION 

ing power from the States and adding strength to the 
Federal Government. . . . Our fathers desired not the 
consoHdation of the government, but the consohdation 
of the Union. We want a Federal Union ; not a Na- 
tional Union." When he concluded, an adjournment 
was made to the following day, although Webster had 
arisen to reply. 

The friends of Hayne rejoiced, claiming a victory. 
The friends of Webster questioned whether the New 
England orator could refute the apparently authentic 
statements concerning his own past history, his state, 
and the intentions of the fathers of the Constitution. On 
the latter point only did he himself seem to have any hes- 
itation, and that upon grounds of expediency rather than 
ability. To a friend on the evening before his second 
reply, he expressed the conviction that the attack upon 
New England was secondary to Hayne's exposition of a 
system of politics which went far to change the form of 
government from that which was established by the 
Constitution into that which had existed under the 
prior Confederation. He expressed his intention of 
putting that attempt to rest forever, so far as it could 
be done by an argument in the Senate. Yet the fol- 
lowing morning, in the cloak-room of the Capitol, he 
unfolded to another friend ^ his doubts about the advis- 
ability of the action. Being assured that it was high 
time that the people should know what the Constitution 
really was, Webster replied, " Then, by the blessing of 
Heaven, they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes 
down, what I understand it to be." 

News of the intellectual combat had gone forth, and 
1 Bell, of New Hampshire. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 327 

many visitors had come into the city. Before the hour 
of opening, twelve o'clock, the Senate chamber was 
packed, the very stairs being filled with men who clung 
on to each other "like bees in a swarm." Across the 
rotunda, the Speaker sat in the deserted House of 
Representatives. One member who had come over to 
the Senate found himself wedged in behind one of the 
swinging doors back of the Vice-President's chair, and 
broke the glass in the door, so that he might hear the 
speaker.^ The statement of the anti-Jackson men that 
they were returning to the old Whig principles of Revo- 
lutionary days may have suggested the blue coat and 
buff waistcoat which Webster wore on this occasion. 
None knew better than he the effect of appropriate 
dress. 

All opening preliminaries were postponed to hear the 
great senator from Massachusetts. Having presented in- 
consistency for inconsistency in the past record of both 
men and sections, he came to consider the nature of the 
Union, and to show that there could be no nullification 
save in revolution. If the states had created the Union, 
then it was bound to obey four and twenty masters of 
different wills and different purposes. " It is, sir, the 
people's constitution, the people's government ; made 
for the people ; made by the people ; and answerable to 
the people. . . . The State legislatures as political 
bodies, however sovereign, are not yet sovereign over 
the people." He closed with the well-known appeal 
for " liberty and union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable." 

The new theory had been pronounced. The silent 

1 Wentvvorth, of Illinois. 



328 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

and necessary growth of power in the central govern- 
ment was now to be understood as having been there 
intentionally and from the beginning. The listeners 
sat silent as if amazed, although the Vice-President 
pounded lustily with his gavel and cried angrily, 
" Order ! Order ! " A group of Massachusetts men 
who clustered in a corner of the gallery and who " shed 
tears like girls " felt that Calhoun was trying to break 
the spell of the concluding appeal. Once, indeed, he 
had sharply interrupted the speaker to inquire if he 
meant anything personal. Hayne had done the same 
thing. But the imperturbable Webster assured each that 
such was far from his intentions. The listeners may 
have felt otherwise. 

In a rejoinder, Hayne pointed out the words in the 
preamble to the Constitution — " We the people of the 
United States." "It is clear they can only relate to 
the people as citizens of the several States, because the 
Federal Government was not then in existence." In a 
counter-rejoinder, Webster showed that " so far from 
saying that it is established by the Governments of the 
several States, it does not even say that it is established 
by the people of the several States ; but it pronounces 
that it is established by the people of the United States 
in the aggregate." ^ 

The debate on the Foote resolution dragged on until 
May, but it was only the firing of the smaller pieces. 
The twenty-pounders had spoken. Each side claimed 

^ In the first draught of the Constitution, the preamble had read : " We 
the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts," and so on 
through the list of thirteen states; but, since no one knew how many of 
the states would adopt the new government, the preamble was changed to 
" We the people of the United States." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



329 






^^^■^>^m 



i"^* 



DANIEL WEBSTER, 



Mn. HAYNE, OP/90UTH CAROLINA: ^ 



^HB Kf.SOM'TION O^fBIi^BD BY MU- FOOT, 



#. 



nSLATITS TO 



the victory. " They say that the Southern Orator is 
more than a match for the New England Lawyer " a 
southern newspaper asserted. Another said, "The 
theory of Webster 
that for a state 
to resist an uncon- 
stitutional law is 
treason ; that the 
General Govern- 
ment derives its 
power not from the 
concessions of the 
States but by the 
grant of the peo- 
ple; that Congress 
is the sole judge of 
the extent of its 
powers under the 
Constitution-; that 
the federal judici- 
ary is the tribunal 
of last resort and 
irresponsible ex- 
cept to Congress 
by impeachment 
. — these views de- 
stroy the sovereign 
character of the states and tend to concentrate power 
in the central government." 

The Jacksonian newspapers claimed that " Mr. Web- 
ster has been foiled in his great object. Mr. Hayne's 
are the true views of the Constitution — that it is a lim- 



THE PUB£ia Iii&KrDS, 



nKfNG I NDF.H CONSU)KRATIC»% 



IIStlVKIUl' 



Tin, SKNATE, JANUARY 26, 1830. 



Vv A^KIN'GTON 



1830. 



330 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

ited constitution : formed by sovereign states and pos- 
sessing certain specified powers. Mr. Webster's theory 
would give it substantially unlimited authority over the 
state governments and in effect reduce them to mere 
corporations." It was a revival of the old theory of 
government by a select few which had fallen with the 
first Adams and had arisen with the second Adams, but 
to be crushed by Jackson. Again they said: " The im- 
portance of this debate must be apparent to all. It is 
deeply felt here. . . . Webster depends upon his speech, 
which is to go forth North and West, to rally all that can 
be collected in the crusade against the States, against 
the South, and against the present Administration." 

The latter prophecy seemed likely to be fulfilled. At 
the office of the National Intelligencer in Washington 
forty thousand copies of Webster's speeches were struck 
off. The Massachusetts presses added as many more. 
Fulsome praise attended the circulation, until the Jack- 
sonian papers cried " the force of puffing can no further 
go." Some compared the services of Webster with 
those of Jefferson in saving the country. Others com- 
pared him with Washington. 

'• When erst oppression's iron hand 
Bore long and heavy on our land, 
A cry arose, and Heaven anon 
Sent the deliverer. Wasliington. 

" So when a second crisis came 
(Rebellion, glorying in the name, 
Reared high her flaming torch elate), 
Webster appeared and 'saved the State.' " 

Addresses from various bodies, and resolutions from state 
legislatures of New England, were showered upon him. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 33 1 

Clay, who was in temporary retirement, wrote that the 
speeches were the theme of praise from every tongue.^ 

Soon after, Webster made a triumphant tour as far 
west as Ohio, where he was turned back by the preva- 
lence of the cholera. He was feasted and toasted all 
along his journey "for his devotion to the stability of 
the Union." The new theory of the Union was widely 
discussed as a new idea — "a newfangled idea in an old 
democracy." Wags compared the union of the states 
with the union of man and wife, having a resultant right 
of revolution. A toast was offered to "The Fair — 
While they are for Union we defy the world." 

From an unprejudiced view point, Hayne was histori- 
cally correct in his stand. The people through the states 
had sent the delegates to the two conventions which 
finally resulted in the Constitution. That document was 
reported to the several states and ratified by the people 
residing therein. The senators and representatives are 
chosen by the people of the states. But whatever the 
fathers had meant or understood, Webster was pro- 
phetically correct. It had been found impossible to 
retain the reserved powers in the states. The Union 
had been made and was to be made not by theory but 
by necessity. Geographically and commercially the 
whole must be superior to one of its parts. Hayne 
was speaking the language of the past ; Webster that of 

1 The friends of the Union pronounced it a victory over Calhoun and 
his theory of nullification. 

The chorus of a song of the day ran : 

" John C. Calhoun, my Jo John, I'm sorry for your fate, 
You've nullified the tariff laws, you've nullified your state. 
You've nullified your party, John, and principles, you knovkf. 
And now you've nullified yourself, John C. Calhoun, my Jo." 



332 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

the future. The "cause" was " lost " thirty years before 
the first gun was fired. 

A debate could settle nothing. Even the compromise 
between South Carolina and the Union, which closed the 
tariff incident, left sectional theory open to further dis- 
cussion. Unfortunately these theories found exemplifi- 
cation in a sectional fact in the annexation of Texas and 
the resulting war with Mexico. 

In the light of the present day, one must see the 
accession of Texas as an ev^ent in the territorial expan- 
sion of the American people. It was an evidence of 
the land hunger inherited from our English ancestry. 
The ensuing war with Mexico, entirely unprovoked, was 
another result of overbearing English blood, the desire 
to fight something, to take a gun occasionally and go 
out to kill something. The American settlers in Texas 
had been drawn largely from the southern states. 
They had taken their slaves with them. To the north- 
ern view, the war seemed to be undertaken by the 
southern slave owners against a weak sister republic 
in which slavery had been abolished. The fact that 
President Polk, whose orders had precipitated the war 
and who notified Congress that war existed by the act 
of Mexico, was a southern man and a slave owner gave 
further color to this charge of a war for the benefit of 
slavery. 

In truth, the first lines were drawn, not on sections, 
but on the support of the President. Senators from the 
following states supported, for instance, the first war 
measure: New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. Those from the 



DANIEL WEBSTER 333 

following states opposed it : Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, and 
Maine. The following states were divided, one senator 
voting afifirmatively and the other negatively: Connecti- 
cut, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Michigan. 
It was not a slavery war in its beginning, but it had that 
appearance to the anti-slavery element in New England. 

Calhoun voted in the affirmative and supported the 
war throughout. Webster was absent when the first 
measures were passed, but opposed the war unto the 
end, thereby still further endearing himself to the anti- 
slavery people of New England as their champion. 

New Hampshire had first sent Daniel Webster to 
Congress in 181 3, where he served two terms. When he 
removed to Boston, he again served four years in Con- 
gress and was then made United States Senator from 
Massachusetts. Thrice was he chosen to this position 
by the legislature of his state. Although far from 
possessing the habits of the Puritan, he was felt to be 
the protector of New England both as to character and 
interests against the attacks of the other sections. 
After listening to his reply to Hayne, " New England 
men walked down Pennsylvania Avenue . . . with a 
firmer step and bolder air. . . . You would have sworn 
they had grown some inches taller in a few hours' time. 
They devoured the way, in their stride. . . . No one 
who was not ready to exclaim, with gushing eyes in the 
fulness of gratitude, 'Thank God, I too am a Yankee!'"^ 
When the "Godlike Daniel," as they called him, re- 
signed to accept a cabinet position under Harrison, 
1 March's " Reminiscences of Congress," page 125. 



334 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Massachusetts waited patiently until he was again free, 
and upon the first opportunity, in 1845, sent him back 
to his old place. Other senators exceeded in time the 
eighteen years served by Webster in the Senate. Few 
endeared themselves so much to their constituents ; 
none made such a reputation for oratory on so few 
speeches. 

When the " Force bill " which Jackson put through 
Congress to punish South Carolina, as described in the 
last chapter, was pending in the Senate, Calhoun arose 
as the protector of the rights of that state to hurl his 
condemnation and even defiance at it and its author. 
The reply of Webster drew crowded galleries and at its 
close made them, despite the rules, rise to cheer " Daniel 
Webster, the defender of the Constitution." Had not 
the Hayne- Webster controversy preceded and overshad- 
owed it, this would have been the great constitutional 
debate. Soon after, the censure by the Senate of Jack- 
son's conduct in the bank controversy brought forth a 
" protest " from the chief executive. Webster's reply 
was considered by many to have surpassed his previous 
efforts in constitutional argument. Upon these three 
great occasions the reputation of Webster as the "de- 
fender of the Constitution " rested. The crucial test 
was drawing near. 

Those who conceded to genius the right of inconsist- 
ency readily pardoned Webster for having changed his 
attitude upon the tariff and other questions at different 
times. In truth, shifting conditions in a growing body 
make a permanent attitude impossible either in a party 
or a leader. Webster once said, "Politicians are not sun- 
flowers ; they do not turn on their god when he sets the 



DAIVIEL WEBSTER 335 

same look that they turned when he rose." The great 
strength which the anti-slavery element was, gaining in 
his own Massachusetts was not unknown to Webster, 
nor the importance of cultivating it unappreciated. 
Would he fall in with the rapidly rising sentiment in 
favor of the national regulation of slavery, or would he 
abide by the old idea of leaving the matter to the indi- 
vidual states ? 

In 1833, Webster had written to an inquirer: "Con- 
gress has no authority to interfere in the emancipation 
of the slaves or in the treatment of them in any of the 
States. That was decided in 1790. I regard slavery 
as a great evil, morally and politically, but the remedy 
lies in the several States." In 1848, when the Whigs 
overlooked Webster as a presidential possibility and 
were carried away by the war hero, General Taylor, 
Webster might have repudiated the candidate and 
thrown his influence to Ex-President Van Buren, who 
had reappeared as a Free-Soil or anti-slavery candidate. 
When in a speech at his home, Marshfield, he ignored 
Van Buren, and decided of the two evils of Whig and 
Democratic candidates to support the Whig, he bitterly 
disappointed the anti-slavery people of his state. His 
efforts to keep back the growing slavery question and 
to bring out the old issues of the tariff and the bank 
are almost pitiful. He was like some giant trying by 
main strength to hold in place the floodgates beyond 
which surged the constantly increasing tide of public 
sentiment. The people had been " fooled " for some 
time, but they could not be fooled all of the time. 

Sentiment in the south grew with that in the north, 
but from an opposite standpoint. With the increase of 



336 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

means of transportation and communication between 
the two sections, the property of the slave owners 
became more in peril. Pamphlets and newspapers 
came over the border to tell the slave that he was 
bound to his master by no moral right. School-teachers 
followed to teach the slave to read. The " under- 
ground railroad " with its scores of routes and its 
thousand stations offered a premium to the runaway 
slave who could reach the border. If the master 
ignored a runaway, he encouraged the others to take 
a similar leave. If he pursued him into the north, 
every mind conspired against him to keep him out of his 
property. If an example was not made of the returned 
slave, the effect on his companions was lost. A run- 
away slave was like a runaway horse — he simply awaited 
another opportunity. Escaping again to the north, he 
showed his scars and wounds, and in a moment's time 
created more anti-slavery sentiment than constitutional 
theories and judicial decisions could overcome in a life- 
time.^ 

The Constitution had distinctly recognized slaves as 
property to be restored to lawful owners, and the Con- 
gress had assented to this hypothesis with very few 
dissentients in the act of 1793. According to its 
provisions, the owner could reclaim his property before 
either a national or state magistrate, and the governor 
of the state was bound to return the slave as he would 
return a criminal escaping from justice. The chief 
difficulty in enforcing the law lay in identification. The 
blacks had no distinctive marks, no identity, no lineage, 

1 The New York Tribune of F'eb. 28, 1851, estimated the number of 
fugitive slaves escaping the preceding year at loii. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 337 

and often no definite names. No doubt free neirroes 
were sometimes taken by mistake, and the people of the 
north came to believe every seizure an abduction. 

A disposition became manifest as the cases increased 
to ignore the old fugitive slave law — through state 
couit decisions, refusals of governors to honor requisi- 
tions, and "retaliatory laws" passed by various state 
legislatures. To make matters worse for the slave 
owner, the United States Supreme Court decided that 
the national government could not compel state officers 
to execute the old law.^ Hence the growing demand on 
the part of the south for a new fugitive slave law which 
should ignore the states and give more strength to the 
national officers in returning fugitives. The northern 
states had been encouraging the growth of the Union ; 
the southerners wanted to have the benefit of it. 

As this proposed Fugitive Slave law took shape in 
Congress, sectional animosity flamed up afresh. The 
anti-slavery men insisted that the machinery of the 
United States government should never be prostituted 
to returning men to bondage. The south hoped that 
the attitude of the north would be assumed only after 
mature deliberation, since the decision would be final. 
If justice to their interests could not be obtained in the 
Union, then it must be obtained out of the Union. One 
member of the Senate in a speech gave only a week's 
respite before the south would take action. A southern 
convention was called to meet at Nashville and filled all 
with apprehension. 2 

1 In the case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania (1842). 

- Two sessions of this convention were held in 1850. Delegates were 
present from seven southern states. Nothing save resolutions resulted. 
z 



338 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/0 iV 

Between these two hostile camps of radicals or hot- 
bloods of both sections, the conservative commercial 
men who saw ruin in the threatening- disunion ran to 
and fro, crying, "Peace! Peace! The Union! The 
Union ! " A Washington newspaper asked what was to 
become of its invested capital when the Union was at an 
end. Three and four columns from Washington on the 
signs of the times could be found in every outside news- 
paper. 

" Union " meetings were held in many cities and reso- 
lutions adopted condemning "the fanatical efforts of the 
Abolition and free-soil agitators." Calhoun, the protector 
of the south, who sat " with cast-iron countenance " in 
the shadow of coming death, hoped for nothing from 
such demonstrations. "The cry of 'Union, Union, the 
glorious Union ! ' can no more prevent disunion," said 
he, "than the cry of 'Health, health, glorious health!' 
on the part of the physician can save a patient lying 
dangerously ill." 

In this tension, Clay, the great pacificator, again came 
forward with a compromise by which each side should 
gain something and yield something.^ The north, for 
one thing, was to allow the P^ugitive Slave measure to 
pass. The proposition met a storm of protest. James 
Russell Lowell paid his compliments to the proposed 
"compromise " : 

"Now God confound the dastard word! 
My gall thereat arises : 
Northward it hath this sense alone, 

1 The several provisions of the Compromise of 1850 may be found in 
any text-book. They were popularly known as the " five bleeding wounds 
in the body politic." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 339 

That you, your conscience blinding, 
Shall bow your fooPs nose to the stone, 
When slavery feels like grinding." ^ 

All awaited the attitude which Webster would take. 
It was the last combat of the old gladiators. Clay was 
there, even then having premonitions of that ailment 
which soon proved fatal. Calhoun was there, too feeble 
to speak, but gesturing whilst his speech was read by 
another through the courtesy of the Senate. A reporter 
described him as " pale and thin and seemed quite feeble. 
He appeared more like a corpse than a living being, he 
was so ghastly and pale." Webster alone seemed to 
retain both the physical and intellectual strength of the 
past. 

In February, 1850, a Washington correspondent wrote 
to his paper, " All are looking forward with no incon- 
siderable interest for the long-promised speeches of 
Calhoun, Benton, and Webster. . . . What course Mr. 
Webster will take I will not attempt to foreshadow. I 
believe no man knows and that all rumors in respect to 
it are idle and utterly unfounded." On March 3, he 
wrote : "We yet see no signs of Mr. Webster appearing 
as compromiser for the benefit of the South. It is evi- 
dent he elects to play the part in which he has been told 
he would be sure to make a great hit" — and that was 
as a Massachusetts anti-slavery man. 

A few days later it was rumored that the great oracle 
would speak on the 7th of March. " Our city is now 
teeming with strangers," said a Washington news- 
paper. It afterward declared that " the Senator from 
Massachusetts rose to address the most crowded audi- 

^ From "An Interview with Miles Standish." 



340 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

ence we have ever seen on the floor and in the galleries 

of the chamber." The official Congressional Globe 

says : 

"Thursday, March 7, i<S5o. 

"At an early hour this morning, the Senate chamber was com- 
pletely occupied by ladies and such few gentlemen as had been 
able to obtain admittance, who endured several hours patient 
possession of seats, and even of the floor, that they might hear 
the long-expected speech of the Senator from Massachusetts." 

Upon this great assemblage the deep voice of the 
orator fell in a fresh plea for the Union : " Mr. Presi- 
dent, I wish to speak to-day not as a Massachusetts 
man, nor as a northern man, but as an American and 
a member of the Senate of the United States. ... I 
speak to-day for the preservation of the Union." For 
three hours he continued with a rather tedious history 
of human slavery, and a review of the necessity for each 
point in the proposed compromise. Upon the Fugitive 
Slave provision he was not uncertain. "I propose to 
support that bill to the fullest extent, to the fullest ex- 
tent." In a portion of the speech, when depicting the 
horrors of a dissolution of the Union, he glowed with 
the old-time fire, but as a whole the effort must rank only 
as an historical dissertation. 

An outline of the speech reached Boston the next 
day and was printed under the head " By Magnetic 
Telegraph." ^ When the entire speech came by mail 

1 The use of the telegraph had been greatly extended by the Mexican 
war, but the service for many years after was very inadequate. Sometimes 
the transmission of a speech would suddenly end, antl.the editor would be 
compelled to add a note, " The remainder of this message will be printed 
to-morrow." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 34 1 

there was a diversity of opinion corresponding with the 
attitude on slavery. One newspaper, which had learned 
"from Washington that Mr. Webster will speak in the 
Senate on Wednesday and make a whole-souled Union 
speech," failed to relish a speech which conceded too 
much to the Union. "It has caused considerable sen- 
sation in this city (Boston), and, we must add, not a 
very satisfactory one. We do not so much desire 



SPEECH OF MR..WEBSTEE 

MR..>CLAYS RESQLUTIO?fS. 

• f •!__ a 




SECOND ED!TI02 



/^ ?^ ViCt PaKsiDBMT.. Thfi resolulionv fnilimUted by the ScnoS^from Kentucky were mado i)M 

|(. «li(a«i order oC the dajnjl]2o*uluck. Tbe Senator from Wiacoiuin (Mr. Walssr) bastke floor. 

-''J.. {^|u W4&JCSS. Adr'^esiiient, ihts VActi audience has not aat^cmbled to hear me; and ihera ia '.but 

',J|rtiL|iiiin, in ^7 Ofumon, wbo can asaemblo such ao audience. They^t^x^iect to heo/ him, and XX&»'A 



orators to enlarge upon the beauties of our Union as 
statesmen who will have the courage to propose means 
forits preservation." Another Boston editor pronounced 
it a speech to promote the unity of the Nation — a spirit 
of compromise, forbearance, and generosity. When one 
newspaper said, " We expect very little from Mr. Web- 
ster," another replied, "We trust in Heaven he has not 
spoken in vain." 

— Garrison's Abolition Liberator declared that Webster 
had "betrayed the cause of Liberty, bent his supple 



342 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/OiV 

knees anew to the slav'e power, and dishonored the State 
which he was sent to Congress faithfully to represent." 
Wendell Phillips reviewed the speech in many columns. 
Whittier called it "the scandalous treachery of Webster" 
and turned upon him the full strength of his scorn in 
" Ichabod." A public meeting of colored people in 
Boston pronounced the speech "wicked." Demon- 
stration counteracted demonstration. When the Aboli- 




1llustk.\tion in an ABOLrnuN Publicahun 

tionists held a condemnation meeting in Faneuil Hall, 
the Whigs sent Webster a congratulatory address with 
three hundred signatures for his efforts "toward the 
common good of the country." Similar addresses were 
sent from New York and other cities. A citizen of 
California sent Webster a chain of solid gold, to which 
the New York merchants hung a magnificent watch. 
When a Whig newspaper asserted that Webster's use- 
fulness as a public man was gone forever, a Democratic 



DANIEL WEBSTER 343 

editor equally insisted that he had burst the narrow 
and prejudiced sectionalism which had heretofore con- 
fined and cramped his mind. 

This very praise of Webster by the Democratic 
press was the most disgusting to the anti-slavery peo- 
ple, since it showed to them the price Webster was to 
receive for their betrayal. Phillips thought it "the best 
bid that has yet been made for the presidency. It is the 
shrewdest thing Daniel ever did." An anti-slavery 
writer said : " It has been attempted to glorify this 
speech by giving to it the title ' For the Constitution 
and the Union.' Less grandiloquently, perhaps, but 
quite as truthfully it might have been entitled, ' A job 
for the presidential chair.' " 

Was Webster candid .'' Did he really believe the 
Union was in danger unless the south obtained its 
demands.'' No amount of human logic can determine 
the hidden motives of a man, and a man who defiantly 
refuses to make explanations while still being criti- 
cised. It is likely that his lordly nature, refusing to 
be driven by radicals, set itself in the old way of the 
Union and there remained defiantly. He had even gone 
out of his way in the speech to defy instructions from his 
constituents and to abuse the Abolitionists. " I do not 
think them useful. I think their operations for the 
last twenty years have produced nothing that is good or 
valuable." "He even defies the instructions of federal 
Massachusetts and offers the open hand of friendship to 
the south," said a Pennsylvania editor. 

Two months later, Webster visited Boston and spoke 
for twenty minutes in front of the Revere House. He 
denied that he had stepped backward or abandoned his 



344 THE MEA' WHO MADE THE NATION' 

old position. " In that course of pacification I shall per- 
severe regardless of all personal consequences." Some 
reports of the occasion describe the immense enthusiasm, 
and others the lack of it. A cart loaded with iron which 
at one time drowned the voice of the speaker was attrib- 
uted to the trickery of his enemies. 

During the ensuing days, Webster said there had not 
been an hour in which he had not felt a crushing sense 
of responsibility and fear for the Union. He drew 
applause from the gallery of the Senate by declaring, 
" I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at 
shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's." When a 
friend suggested that he make some apology for his 
attitude he replied, " Like the old Deacon, I never 
make paths until the snow ceases to fall." But the 
snow of criticism was not likely to be checked by his 
continuing in his speeches to abuse both Abolitionists 
and Free-Soilers, especially when the speeches were 
delivered as far south as Virginia. 

Even then, as the presidential election of 1852 drew 
near, some hoped the prize would be his. Clay was ap- 
proaching his end ; there was no other Whig leader. But 
on the first ballot in the Baltimore convention Webster 
received only 29 out of 293 votes! Through the fifty- 
three ballots, the south never once rallied to Webster. 
If the Abolitionist charge was true that he had betrayed 
them, he never received the thirty pieces of silver. A 
military hero. General Scott, had again won the honors 
from a civic idol. Determined yet to win, his friends in 
Massachusetts nominated him as an independent Whig 
candidate, and issued pamphlets in his behalf. The 
action was followed in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Three 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



345 



weeks before the election, word came that his name had 
been withdrawn, and one week later, the news followed 
that Daniel Webster was dead. 

It is as specu- 
lative to say that 
a broken heart 
caused his physi- 
cal death as that 
the 7th of March 
caused his politi- 
cal death. Web- 
ster was the idol 
of New England, 
but she never won 
for him a single 
state outside her 
section. In truth, 
she had lost the 
balance of politi- 
cal power to the 
newer west, but 
failed to realize it. 
Every attempt of 
Webster to gain 
legislation for her 
interests, alien- 
ated him from the 
agricultural south. Every time he accepted relief from 
eastern manufacturers in the hard-pressed condition of 
his finances, due to careless business habits, he caused the 
western and southern people to fear that as President he 
would be the servant of such masters. 





T 11 K 




ADi;::r.<s AM) rii()( i:i;i>iN(-s 




FRIEN-DS OF DANIEL WEBSTER, 




as.-<(-m;;i.i:ii in \'\\\'\ n. n'l.i.. 




©n tocbafsJian, Scptcmbct 1511), 1352 




MA-i CONNKN riMS. 




11 K T IJ N': 




JAMES iBtscu. u TCAsiny. ....:; l)TnEi.7. 




1852. ; 


-^- 


•sw; . 



A Wlhstek Campaign Pamphlet, 1S52 



346 THE ME IV WHO MADE THE NAT/ ON 

In the making of the Nation, the matter of the 
presidency, which closed in failure the career of the 
preeminent New Englander, was as unimportant as his 
attitude on the tariff, which gave question to the open- 
ing of his career. Higher than the petty details of 
economic legislation, higher than the services of any 
President before his time, must be reckoned the efforts 
of Webster for the Union. He put into usable terms 
the silent growth of the central power, and couched the 
whole in such eloquent language that it became an all- 
potent watchword against disunion, — "Liberty aiid 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable ! " 



CHAPTER XI 

horace greeley, the anti-slavery editor 

Clinton, Lenawee Co., Mich. 
Feb. 4, 1848. 

H. Greeley, Esq. : Please send me the Netu York Daily 
Tribune and I will pay you at the end of the year. By so do- 
ing you will promote the Whig cause in this section of country 

and oblige, 

Yours, etc., 

Henry W. Stevens. 

New York, Feb. 15, 1S48. 
H. \\ . Stevens, Esq. : . . . T -published newspapers seven 
years on credit with lots of subscribers and came near starving 
to death thereby. For the last seven years I have gone on the 
opposite track. ... I have since had not only a goodly array 
of subscribers, but enough to eat, a good suit of clothes, and 
very often some change in the vest pocket. Wishing you a 
share of the same blessings, I am. 

Yours truly, 

Horace Greeley. 

Newspapers had been printed in the American colo- 
nies seventy years before the Revolution, yet at the 
beginning of that struggle they numbered less than 
forty. They had no part in the foi-mation of public 
opinion. The political contests involving the adoption 
or rejection of the Federal Constitution put a new value 

347 



348 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



The F.affle of lAberitf, 
SHrangliitff the Serpent 

or roRRri'TFOtW 



upon printed communications, and the number of publi- 
cations increased rapidly. As has been previously said, 
the rise of political parties was marked by an abusive 
press, ^ but the cessation of party spirit in the " era of 
good feeling " caused a subsidence of this acrimony. The 
first thought was that the home of the newspaper would 

be at the headquarters of 
politics — the national capi- 
tal. The development of 
business enterprises later 
showed that the newspaper 
demanded a commercial 
foundation, and would thrive 
best in the greatest business 
centre. 

In 1835, James Gordon 
Bennett, after numerous ex- 
periments in founding jour- 
nals, left the city of Wash- 
ington and started a penny 
paper, the Herald, in New 
York City. Four years ear- 
lier, there had reached that 
city a kind of tramp printer, 
whose gaunt and awkward 
figure, light hair, and high voice made him the ridicule 
of his fellow-printers, as he sought work among them. 
Horace Greeley had been a precocious child in the Ver- 
mont hills, where he had later learned his trade. Now, 
like Whittington of old, he had come with $10 in his 
pocket to the "great Metropolis," as he called it, to make 
1 See Chapter VI. 




True .American Ticket. 

For Prisiihiit, 

W.ftf. HENRY HAKUISON. 



HORACE GREELEY 



349 



liis fortune. As a lad in the country school, he was 
reported to have replied to a questioning visitor, " Sir, I 
intend to be an editor." This ambition caused him to 
attempt the Morning Post, and then the Neiv Yorker, 
but each failed. 

The campaign year of 1840 brought a change in Gree- 
ley's ill fortune. The Whigs, profiting by the success 
of the Demo- 
crats with Jack- 
son, decided to 
pass by all po- 
litical possibil- 
ities and to 
take up an old 
soldier with a 
military record. 
Jackson had 
represented 
the frontier element on the southwest, and William 
Henry Harrison was selected to catch the frontier vote 
on the northwest.^ Political preference thus followed 
closely the migration of the people. 

The Democrats scoffed at the idea of sending to the 
White House a candidate of the wilderness, who needed 
only a log-cabin to dwell in, a coonskin cap to wear, 
hard cider to drink, and a pension to make him con- 
tented where he was. The Whigs accepted the chal- 
lenge and rallied the people under these symbols. The 
party leaders in New York asked Greeley to assume the 
editorship of a campaign paper to be issued simulta- 




Campaign Symbols of 1840 



^ Harrison had been a candidate in 1836, although the Whig party as 
a whole had not nominated him in a convention. 



150 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



THE LOG 




CABm 



IN VKW-VOKK AM>\fcl-. 







neously in New York City 
and Albany. On Saturday, 
May 2, 1840, the Log Cabin 
appeared under the manage- 
ment of H. Greeley & Co. 
With the financial backing of 
the New York Whigs, it was 
a success, and the compensation it afforded enabled 
Greeley to undertake still another journalistic venture. 
The following April, he announced a " New Morning 
Journal of Politics, Literature, and General Intelli- 
gence," which would be "a welcome visitant at the 
family fireside." Associating with himself in this Trib- 
une a competent business manager, he soon brought the 
paper to an unprecedented circulation, ranging for weeks 
at a time above one hundred thousand copies. 

As a reformer by nature, Greeley opened the columns 
of his paper to every worthy cause. When the Trib- 
une was over thirty years old, he said, " Doubtless 
many readers have heard of the Isms of the Tribune 
. . . and yet as one mind has presided over its isms 
from the outset, so one golden thread of purj)ose may 
be traced througb them all." At another time he 
declared that one had "better incur the trouble of test- 
ing and exploding a thousand fallacies than, by reject- 
ing, stifle a single beneficent truth." 

His impetuous nature made him a militant reformer. 



HORACE GREELEY 



351 



JJfcttirrs tf 40ro3re.s3. 



In discussing the subject of woman's rights, he went to 
the extreme of a division of labor between the sexes, 
and was cartooned accordingly by his critics. As a 
vea:etarian and a follower of the theories of Dr. Graham, ^ 
he scrupulous- 
ly carried out 
in his private 
life the sys- 
tems which he 
advocated as 
editor. He met 
the obliga- 
tions which he 
thought rested 
upon the edi- 
tor to instruct 
the people 
orally by mak- 
ing lecture 
tours through- 
out the coun- 
try, until it was 
said that his 
face was as 
well known as 
that of Washington. Stories of his eccentricity of dress 
and habits frequently preceded him. As one reporter 
said : " Horace Greeley is advertised for another lecture 




ATL 11 THE 



KC». THKr 



* Cuj. of the Tnlmnt, Feb. 19(A. 



1 Sylvester (".raham, a Presbyterian clergyman, published in 1840 his 
" Bread and Bread Making,'' in which he advocated the use of unbolted 
flour. In a Grahamite boarding-house in New York City, Greeley first met 
Miss Cheney, a Connecticut schoolmistress, who afterwards became his wife. 



352 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

to-night at the Odd Fellows Hall and for a sermon on 
Sunday at Temperance Hall. His novel appearance 
attracts more attention than his lectures, and always 
secures him a good audience." ' 

Although too liberal for a partisan, Greeley imagined 
himself a rigid party man. "An eager, omnivorous 
reader, especially of newspapers, from early childhood, 
I was an ardent politician when not half old enough to 
vote."^ On the contrary, he was often so at variance 
with leaders and principles that people were obliged to 
choose between Greeley and the party. He felt that 
his efforts for his party often went unrewarded. "We 
have done our share at shouting, screeching, hurrahing, 
exhorting, entreating, to influence our readers to vote 
for this or that ticket or party." Beginning with Jack- 
son, the value of the partisan newspaper had been ap- 
preciated, and its editor supposed to be rewarded. But 
Greeley was given nothing. When the election of Har- 
rison first brought the Whigs into power, there " came 
the great scramble of the small mob of coon minstrels 
and cider suckers at Washington, I not being counted 
in," said Greeley. " I was sent once to Congress for 
ninety days merely to enable Jim Brooks to secure a 
seat therein for four years." He was usually patient, 
but the letter^ from which these sentences are taken 
was the lament of the outraged and yet instinctive 
spoilsman. 

If the party leaders ever had a disposition to reward 

' IJaltiinorc correspondence in the Washinglon Union, March l6, 1850. 
- The quotations from Greeley in this chapter arc taken from liis 
" Recollections of a Busy Life." 

'^ To Governor Seward of New York. "Recollections," p. 315. 



HORACE GREELEY 353 

Greeley, his conduct during those ninety days in Con- 
gress must have shown them what a dangerous man 
he would be in office. He created more general dis- 
turbance than the proverbial bull in the china shop. 
No sooner did he see the manifold abuses which have 
come to be accepted as incident to legislative bodies, 
than the politician was lost sight of in the reformer. 
He was no respecter of party issues nor party men in 
his reform movements. 

Scarcely had he taken his seat when he wrote to the 
Tribune about the shameful waste of time by men being 
paid from the public money, although custom was too 
strong to hope for much relief. "Brethren," said thi 
wise African preacher, " blessed are they who expect 
nothing, for they will not be disappointed." Subsequent 
editorials were headed, — "A Day Overboard" and "Kill- 
ing Time." "The House devoted the interval to doing 
nothing — an employment for which it possesses ex- 
traordinary capacities." On another day, "The House 
accomplished the funeral honors of one member last 
week, and by dint of rigid economy saved one over on 
whom to spend to-day." He found but one method of 
checking adjournment and that by demanding the yeas 
and nays upon every such motion. " Blessed be the 
memory of the man who invented the yeas and nays." 
Eventually this failed, since he could not find enough 
supporters to demand the call. One measure only was 
he certain would pass — that appropriating money for 
the pay of the members. 

Aside from attacking the pay granted by law as being 
excessive, he investigated the amount of mileage charged 
by each congressman in going to and returning from 

2A 



354 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



Washington. The law, framed many years before this 
time, supposed that travel could be performed at the 
rate of twenty miles per day, and allowed $8 for 
every twenty miles between the capital and the mem- 
ber's residence. By the introduction of railways and 
steamboat lines, one could now travel one hundred miles 
per day at a cost of $5, but the original rate had 
not been changed. Even this liberality had not pre- 
vented abuse, as it seemed to Greeley in examining 
the records. One day there appeared in the Tribune 
the name of every member of Congress, followed by sta- 
tistics showing the sum collected by the member and 
the real distance between his home and Washington. 
Here are some of the largest excesses and the excess 
charged by some of the principal members of Congress 
at that time, as shown in Greeley's table : 





Name 


Actual No. 
of Miles by 
Post Routes 


Miles 
charged 


Mileage 
charged 


Excess of 
Mileage 
charged 


.Albert G. Brown, Miss. 


1047 


2330 


^1864.00 


$1026.40 


John C. Calhoun, S.C. 


531 


923 


738.00 


313-60 


S. R. Giddings, O. 


338 


850 


680.00 


409.60 


Andrew Johnson, Tenn. 


437 


590 


472.00 


122.40 


Abraham Lincoln, Ills. 


780 


1626 


1300.00 


676.80 


Isaac E. Morse, La. 


1281 


2600 


2080.00 


1055.20 


W. W. Downes, La. 


1 1 90 


2800 


2240.00 


1288.00 


Lewis Cass, Mich. 


524 


108 1 


864.00 


445.60 


Daniel Webster, Mass. 


440 


530 


420.00 


68.00 


Total extr 


a mileage ch 


arged — ^62 


,105.20. 







Greeley's comments were amusing. "Thirty years 
ago the member from Cincinnati jolted in stage-coaches 
and charged $400 for the trip. His successor by steamer 



HORACE GREELEY 



355 



and cars sleeps like a top and 
travels like a lord and yet charges 
$632.40." In Alabama, the great 
turnpike crossed two branches of 
a river. A member who lived 
near one branch charged mileage 
down that branch and up the 
other to the pike road. One 
man in Ohio lived nearer Wash- 
ington than another and yet 
charged $400 more. A Louisiana 
member in his "circumbendibus " 
charged mileage down the Red 
river to the Mississippi, down 
that stream to New Orleans, and 
back up the same river to the 
Ohio and then to Washington. 

When the Tribune containing 
these compilations of Greeley 
reached Washington, a "question 
of privilege " brought it to the 
floor of the House. Greeley was 
denounced as a falsifier and de- 
famer of the honor of the mem- 
bers, and almost personally as- 
saulted. He replied that he 
regretted the figures as much 
as anybody, but since they were 
taken from the public records, he 
could not change them. In the 
Tribune s account of the day, he 
said, "Contrary to usual usage in 



'&3 









^ -*<,«* 
















n 









356 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

the Holiday season, I believe, and contrary to my expec- 
tation, wc have had a breezy, stirring, spicy sitting in 
the House to-day." And he assured his readers that 
it was quite worth the money it cost whether anything 
came of it or not.^ 

The reform ended as most reforms do. The commit- 
tee on mileage was made the scapegoat, the incident 
attributed to "a demagogue who wants to make ap- 
plause," and a committee of investigation appointed. A 
few weeks later, Greeley chronicled " the funeral of 
Mileage Reform." 

Meanwhile, the messengers selected to carry the votes 
of the electoral colleges which chose Taylor for President 
had arrived in Washington, and Greeley began to investi- 
gate the mileage charged by them. A man from Maine, 
whose actual expense Greeley estimated at jg6o, claimed 
and received ^148.75. One from Arkansas charged 
$266.25 for 1065 miles of travel, "by Congressional cir- 
cles," as the Tribune put it. These messengers com- 
plained that even this pay was insufficient, and Congress, 
"to avoid reducing their own," as Greeley claimed, 
doubled it. 

Writing daily to the Tribune, Greeley next conceived 
a system of increased compensation for members of 
Congress, based on increased length of service. "The 
longer a man serves the more useful he becomes," was 

1 In a lecture on Lincoln, published in the twentieth volume of the 
Century, Greeley said of Lincoln's attitude on this question, " But as I 
had made most of the members my enemies at an early stage of that short 
session by printing an elaborate expose of the iniquities of Congressional 
mileage; and as he did not join the active cabal against me, though his 
mileage figured conspicuously and by no means flatteringly in that expose, 
I parted from him at the close of that Congress with none but grateful 
recollections." 



HORACE GREELEY 357 

the principle. In the same way, the chairmen of com- 
mittees on whom extra labor devolved were to be given 
greater pay. When he offered another resolution, to 
deduct pay for absenteeism of members, an insinuat- 
ing amendment was offered and adopted, to deduct pay 
for the time spent by members while in the House 
engaged in writing for their newspapers. 

In some such spirit each of Greeley's reform measures 
was met. He was always frank, and added in his reports, 
"Voted down by a large majority." In this way went 
his effort to prevent a gift of $250 which Congress was 
accustomed to grant each clerk and page before adjourn- 
ment ; his labor to prevent flogging in the navy; to stop 
the payment of a bounty to recruits for the army ; and 
to cut off the liquor ration given to the sailors of the 
nav3\ 

When the House finally adjourned after giving the 
usual gratuities, Greeley went over to the Senate, but 
soon left. The next day he wrote, " The Senate was 
still passing extra gratuities to everybody — and if the 
bottom is not out of the Treasury, may be doing so 
yet for aught I know." Returning to New York, he 
issued an address to his constituency and the people, 
explaining his efforts in their behalf, and closing with a 
characteristic request : 

It is that you and they will oblige me henceforth by remem- 
bering that my name is 

Horace Greeley. 

So closed the public service of the reform editor in 
politics. A fortnight later he was lecturing throughout 
New England on "My Experience in Congress." James 



358 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

Gordon Bennett said in the Herald, " We have not 
probably, in the last thirty years, been blessed with such 
a perfect specimen of a little mean pettifogging dema- 
gogue in Congress as Hon. Mr. Greeley has furnished 
in his own career during the last few months." 

Social reforms Greeley would encourage by the proper 
education of the people ; political reforms he would leave 
to government action through parties. The Abolition 
reform is now considered as affiliated with the great 
agitation for equality of the second quarter of the cen- 
tury, but to Greeley it seemed a political question, 
which could be solved best through the regular political 
parties. It had arisen from small beginnings. 

Save for an occasional anti-slavery petition from the 
Friends or Quakers to Congress, the question had lain 
idle for the first forty years under the Constitution. 
The northern states had provided for emancipation, and 
it was gradually dying out in that section. The profit 
arising from the increased growth of cotton in the ex- 
treme south had made slave labor very profitable, and, 
creating a demand for slaves, had overcome the early 
anti-slavery sentiment in the border states. Into this 
quiet there came slowly and at first imperceptibly the 
disturbing factor of Abolitionism. 

The great reform wave which swept around the civil- 
ized globe about 1830 took many shapes in the United 
States. The churches assumed new vigor, especially in 
the missionary field. There was talk of evangelizing 
the world and of the coming of the millennium. Peace 
societies and temperance bands were formed. An agita- 
tion was begun against carrying the mails on Sunday, 
ag-ainst the theatres and lotteries. The condition of the 



HORACl: LU<EELt:V 359 

Indian and of the slave was considered. The return of 
the latter to Africa seemed feasible, and colonization was 
tried anew. One reformer would devote the proceeds 
of the public land sales to the purchase of the slaves 
after the public debt had been paid. Another would 
raise the necessary $2,000,000,000 by subscription. In 
the dissemination of these reform ideas the Abolition 
press played no small part. 

Benjamin Lundy, a saddler, son of a Quaker preacher, 
wandering" from place to place with a small printing 
outfit, subsisting no one knew how, content if onl)- he 
might occasionally issue his Goiins of Ujiivcrsal Ejnan- 
cipation, was not a heroic figure in the political world. 
Statesmen were apt to sneer at this John the Baptist 
of Abolitionism crying in the wilderness. He pro- 
nounced a new dictum, — that slavery was wrong not 
from the generally accepted standpoint of political econ- 
omy, but that it was an ethical wrong ; that it was for- 
bidden by God speaking through the Scripture ; that the 
negro was a man and brother. 

William Lloyd Garrison, issuing his Liberator from 
the third story of an old building in Boston, with the 



THt! 


I.ISSRAT0R;7^ 


,<„.,. «,,.,>•., 


,, .... ... • . ',. ^'A ,\\s\ " ' 1 


XUnLIBCnATOR 



aid of a printer and a negro apprentice, was unlikely to 
appeal to a young man like Greeley, who looked to great 
parties and party organs for needed reforms. Greeley 



36o THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION' 

would entertain only practical methods, and Garrison's 
cry for " unconditional emancipation " seemed most 
impractical. Emancipation thus far in nearly all the 
states had been conditioned on age or service. Slavery 
lingered long in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jer- 
sey, and Pennsylvania.^ As late as 1827, the last 
emancipation law of New York had gone into effect 
in that state and had freed almost ten thousand slaves. 
Garrison, on the other hand, argued that if slavery were 
wrong, emancipation was right ; that if emancipation 
were right in ten years or for persons born hereafter in 
slavery, it was right at the present time. He would 
have no conditions. 

Nor was much more to be expected from another 
editor, Elijah P. Lovejoy of Illinois, who persisted in 
buying one printing-press after another as they were 
destroyed by the mobs and thrown into the Mississippi, 
until the local warfare culminated in his death. " He 
dieth as the fool dieth," declared the Attorney-general 
of Massachusetts in the public meeting called for Fan- 
euil Hall. " He took refuge under the banner of liberty 
— amid its folds ; and when he fell, its glorious stars 
and stripes, the emblem of free institutions, around 
which cluster so many heart-stirring memories, were 
blotted out in martyr's blood," replied the young 
Wendell Phillips. 

Of these apparently futile attempts to enlist the 
American press in a philanthropic movement, Greeley 
afterward said : " Whatever of impunity they enjoyed 

1 In 1840, there were 1129 slaves in the so-called "free" states. Maine, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, and Michigan, alone of all the states in the Union, 
held no slaves at th.it time. 



HORACE GREELEY 361 

throughout the greater portion of the North was accorded 
them rather through contempt for their insignificance 
than willingness to let them be heard. . . . And while 
I could not withhold from these agitators a certain 
measure of sympathy for their great object, I was utterly 
unable to see how their efforts tended to the achieve- 
ment of their end." Those who claimed that the circu- 
lation of these Abolition papers and the pamphlets which 
frequently accompanied them bred insurrection among 
the slaves, found an example in the Nat Turner rising 
of 183 1. In one day, si.xty-three whites were murdered 
on Virginia plantations. A similar plot was discovered, 
it was claimed, in North Carolina. The whites in Vir- 
ginia soon restored order, killed thirty of the negroes, 
and then demanded the suppression of these disturbing 
papers by the northern state governments. 

A South Carolina paper called upon the governor of 
that state " to demand of the governors of the Northern 
states those moral assassins of life and character, virtual 
Robbers of property, and actual Incendiaries, to be 
delivered up to justice here to suffer condign punish- 
ment for their enormous crimes against God, man, their 
country, and society." The editors of the Liberator 
were indicted in North Carolina, and the taking of a 
copy from the post-office by a negro made a crime. 
The Georgia legislature was reported to have offered 
a reward for the arrest and conviction of its editors. 
Abolition efforts continued. In his Seventh of March 
speech, 1850, Webster estimated that "within the last 
twenty years as much money had been collected and 
paid to the abolition societies, abolition presses, and 
abolition lecturers, as would purchase the freedom of 



362 THE MEN WHO ALIDE THE NATION 

every slave, man, woman, and child, in the State of 
Maryland and send them all to Liberia." 



!Pf"^« 



KREKMEV- AWASCpt 



^ WttJUl TCO «?STAir. D.t IM.IN, JStSFRM; (IlITB, TClXJllimt ,' 

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aBCA'nt>M«; A.M> Nucriis pKACE and iiAPpixutta 

•TO Tlii: RESCUE!" ' | 



(md detuat Uic 


1 riiK 


Wvolut:*iiiary 


1) E V r L 


Kclienic of u 


IS IN IIIK 


dcccdful tjnn^j 


CAMP! 



n,! J.ir/. h-:art«i. 
niton ijemt- 



A\l> M.MVr UN VOIR POSITION I 



PaiLADElPHIA 
1839 
PKK E 10 CENTS 



ANT1-A1U)L1TI0N rAMPIlI.ET 



A Richmond newspaper had once insisted that "the 
people of the North must go to hanging these fanatical 
wretches if they would not lose the benefit of the South- 
ern trade, and they will do it." And again, " Depend 



HORACE GREELEY 363 

upon it, the Northern people will never sacrifice their 
present lucrative trade with the South, so long as the 
hanging of a few thousands will prevent it." Although 
the commercial interests of the north might not use 
such extreme measures, the spirit took shape in mob- 
bing these persistent disturbers of trade. " Hootings, 
bowlings, blackguard revilings, rotten eggs, stoned win- 
dows, &c., &c., were among the milder demonstrations of 
repugnance to which they were habitually subjected," 
says Greeley. He went so far as to predict that had it 
been supposed slavery was endangered by their efforts, 
the Abolitionists would scarcely have escaped with their 
lives from any city or considerable village whence they 
attempted to hold forth. 

Although sympathizing with this proscribed band, 
Greeley had no part with them. As he himself said, 
"I was never a member of any distinctively Abolition 
Society, and very rarely found time to attend an Aboli- 
tion meeting." Yet not one man in ten south of the 
Mason and Dixon line but would have declared that 
Horace Greeley was one of the blackest of black Aboli- 
tionists, while many upon the north of that line held 
the same opinion. ^ The confusion arose from a failure 
to distinguish between Abolition and " non-extension of 
slavery" feeling. Greeley would not have slavery inter- 
fered with except by lawful means ; he would simply con- 

1 Editors of southern newspapers circulated lists of merchants who 
advertised in the Tribune, suggesting that patronage be withheld from 
them. Greeley was indicted at Richmond, Virginia, for circulating an 
incendiary puiilication — the Tribune. Some postmasters refused to 
deliver the paper at their offices. Greeley was assaulted personally in the 
streets of Washington, and his reporters were at one time excluded from 
the gallery of the House of Representatives. 



364 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



fine it to the states where it ah'eady existed. However, 
to the slave-holder the distinction seemed slight since 
each aimed at his property. The one would deprive 
him of it at home, the other would prevent him taking 
it with him to the western country. 

Greeley belonged to the poorer class of the north and 
was unrestricted in his sentiment by fear of losing 
trade or property. Further, his was an unusually sym- 
pathetic nature, easily appealed to by human suffering. 
He had been reared in the broken parts of New Hamp- 
shire and Vermont, where slavery had scarcely been 
known. Above all, his erratic disposition, when once 
he had taken a stand, knew no moderation nor tolerance. 




Escape of Henry Box Brown 



To him it seemed that the southern statesmen were 
inclined to demand too much protection for their pecul- 
iar institution, and during his one term in Congress he 



HORACE GREELEY 365 

reported in the Tribune that there was " too much foot- 
licking by the Northern members on the slavery ques- 
tion." As far back as 185 i he did not hesitate to say 
editorially : "We loathe and detest all laws which give or 
withhold political rights on account of color. 'A man's 
a man for a' that,' and ought to have the full rights of 
manhood whether his ancestors were Celts, Goths, or 
Hottentots, whether his complexion be ebony or ivory." 
Abolitionists had not gone beyond that. When a negro 
was shipped from Baltimore to Philadelphia in a box, 
Greeley said: "If a box should come directed to us 
with a live man in it, we should at the very least pre- 
sume him the owner of himself until somebody else 
proved a title to him. That done, we should let that 
somebody take his property running, recognizing no 
obligation resting on us to help him catch it." ^ 

As a party man, Greeley could not embrace such 
independent movements as the Liberty and Free-Soil 
offshoots, although he applauded their aim. "We care 
not how fast Messrs. Birney & Co.^ may ripen public 
sentiment in the North for Emancipation, we will aid 
them to the best of our ability, but we will not refuse 
the good now within our reach, out of deference to 
that which is unattainable." He had no sympathy 

1 The experience of Henry " Box " Brown, who was shipped from Balti- 
more to Philadelphia in a box, was widely published and illustrated. In 
1850 he was noted in the newspapers as engaged in painting a panorama 
in the city of Philadelphia. 

- In 1840, the Abolitionists split into two factions on the question of 
running a candidate for the presidency. One wing nominated James G. 
Birney of New York; the other formally withdrew from participation in 
the national government. In 1848, the Birney faction united with the Free- 
Soilers or Free Democrats in nominating Ex-President Van Buren of New 
York. 



366 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NA170IV 

with the radical or extreme Abolitionists like Garrison, 
Phillips, and Tappan, who accused the people of allow- 
ing the government to be prostituted to the use of the 
slave-holders. Restricted constantly by the guarantees 
of slavery to be found in the Constitution, they refused 
to take further part in public life. The American Anti- 
slavery (Abolition) Society resolved "That Secession 
from the United States government is the duty of every 
Abolitionist ; That the Abolitionists of this country 
should make it one of the primary objects of this agita- 
tion to dissolve the American Union." In the heat of 
his indignation, Wendell Phillips cried : "The Constitu- 
tion of our fathers was a mistake. Tear it to pieces and 
make a better. . . . It does what its framers intended — 
protects slavery." Garrison went further and declared 
the "Union a Lie, an Imposture, a Covenant with 
Death, and an Agreement with Hell ! " ^ " Up with the 
flag of Disunion that we may have a free and glorious 
Republic of our own ; and when the hour shall come, 
the hour will have arrived that shall witness the over- 
throw of slavery." 

Thereafter meetings of Abolition societies were re- 
ported in the Tribune as gatherings of "union-breakers," 
although in 1854 some radical stanzas on the Anthony 
Burns case appeared in the Tribune, utterly at variance 
with the editorials, but for which Greeley made no 
apology.2 

1 The Liberator, June 20, 1856. 

- They were addressed to the American flag, and contained these lines : 

'• /\11 hail the flaunting Lie 1 " It shields a pirate's deck, 

The stars grow ])ale and dim. It binds a man in chains. 

The stripes are bloody scars. It yokes the captain's neck, 

.■\ he the vaunting hymn. , And wipes the bloody stains.'' 



PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CEMTS. 



BOSTON SLAVE RIOT, 



l^iitljonij ;§urns, 




EEPORT or THE FANEUIL HALL MEETING; THE MnRDEB OF 

EACHELDEE; THEODORE PABKEH'S LESSON FOB THE DAV ; 

SPEECHES OF COUNSEL ON BOTH SIDES, COBBECTED 

BY THEMSELVES; VERBATIM EEPOET OF JTJDOE 

LOF.INO'S DECISION; AND, A DETAILED AC 

COnNT OP THE EMBAEKATION- 



BOSTON: 

FKTRIDOE AND COMPj 
1854. 



368 THE MEN' WHO MADE THE NATION 

Greeley had not joined in the criticism of Webster 
for his support of the Fugitive Slave law, but the execu- 
tion of the law would impress his tender nature most 
unfavorably. At first, there seemed to be no spirit of 
resistance to this act of the general government. A 
Kentucky paper described the return of thirty slaves 
from Ohio "without encountering the least obstacle, or 
even an unkind word." Within two years, over one 
hundred fugitives are recorded as returned, in addition 
to the many of which accounts never found their way 
into the newspapers. 

The first evidence of mob resistance appeared quite 
naturally in Boston, the home of Abolitionism. The 
story of the rescue of Shadrach from the hands of a 
United States commissioner, which brought out a proc- 
lamation of President Fillmore by the hand of Secretary 
Webster, was printed and widely circulated. The ex- 
ample was imitated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in 
the famous case of Addison in central Ohio. The 
unnecessarily brutal methods employed by some of the 
northern "nigger hunters" added to the sense of indig- 
nation. Stimulated by rewards offered by owners, the 
lowest class of men in the northern cities scoured the 
country in search of negroes. Newspaper columns 
teemed with stories of unconscious negroes dragged 
before the commissioners with blood oozing from their 
wounds. In retaliation the negroes were sometimes 
supplied with arms by their sympathizers. Similar 
stories were circulated of wounded and dying United 
States marshals and deputies. Identification was almost 
impossible, and the courts often hastened judgment for 
fear of a rescue. Naturally many captives claimed an 



HORACE GREELEY 369 

alias, and the suspicion grew among the northern people 
that free blacks were being impressed into slavery. 

Every impediment was placed in the way of the claim- 
ants to these fugitives. A writ of habeas corpus was the 
first step, followed by an attempt to quash the indict- 
ment, or by an appeal from the commissioner to the 
state court. A prolonged war was inaugurated between 
marshals, sheriffs, and deputies, which claimed at least 
a score of victims.^ A justice of the United States 
Supreme Court said : " If any tuppeny magistrate or 
any unprincipled interloper can come in and cause to be 
arrested the officers of the United States, whenever they 
please, it is a sad affair. ... If habeas corpuscs are to 
be taken out after that manner, I will have an indict- 
ment sent to the United States Grand Jury against the 
person who applies for the writ, or assists in getting it, 
the lawyer who defends it, and the sheriff wlio serves 
the writ. ... I will see that my officers are supported." ^ 
On the other hand the governor of the state of Ohio 
declared, " The process of the United States courts 
must not be slighted or resisted ; but as long as I repre- 
sent the sovereignty of our state, I will see that the 
process of our state courts shall not be interfered 
with or resisted, but shall be fully enforced." -^ It was a 
strange position into which this making of a nation had 
brought a northern state. Consistency is an impossi- 
bility in a growing body. 

1 Many of these cases are described in a pamphlet entitled "The Fugi- 
tive Slave Law and its Victims," published in New York City in 1861. The 
illustration on page 375 of the escape of a fugitive slave by jumping from 
a window is taken from the Child's Edition of Torrey's " Slave Trader." 

- Justice Grier. 

8 Governor Chase, 



370 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

The governor of Ohio was sustained in this nullifica- 
tion attitude by the " personal liberty " laws which many 
of the northern states had passed in opposition to, and 
defiance of, the national Fugitive Slave law. Vermont, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania 
placed such laws on their statute books. Although not 
uniform, they provided generally that the claimed person 
should have the benefit of Jiabcas corpus and a jury trial ; 
that he be given counsel at the expense of the state; 
that two witnesses were necessary for identification, and 
that the use of the state jails and the assistance of the 
state officers be absolutely forbidden in all fugitive cases. 
Heavy punishment was also provided for any attempt to 
seize a free person. These laws were almost prohibitive. 
With possibly no place to lodge a captured black, an- 
noyed by writs, faced by good lawyers, unprotected from 
the mob, the United States official did not enter will- 
ingly upon such duty. The slave claimer, in the prob- 
able event of an unfavorable verdict by a jury, found 
himself fined and imprisoned for attempting to take a 
free person. 

The states based these laws upon the assumption that 
the rendition of fugitives should have been left to the 
respective states. If it should not have been so left, 
the action of the states was unconstitutional. If it 
should have been, they were compelling their officers to 
violate the oath which they had taken to support the 
laws of the United States as well as the state. It was 
also a breach of faith on the part of the states toward the 
Union. In any event, the states were assuming to them- 
selves the right to judge the actions of a superior body 



HORACE GREELEY 37 1 

— the Congress. Although in the past insistnig tliat the 
implied powers belonged to the Union and that the final 
arbiter was the Supreme Court, they now found them- 
selves resting upon state sovereignty and state courts. 
When the United States Supreme Court reversed such 
a decision of the Wisconsin court, ^ the state legisla- 
ture resolved that when the Federal government tran- 
scends its power, " positive defiance " is the only remedy. 
Wisconsin, in 1859, had become the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky of 1 798-1 799 and the South Carolina of 1832. 
People become forgetful of traditions and past policies 
only in the face of unbearable conditions and on the 
verge of revolution. To this condition they had been 
brought, not only by the sight of slave hunting, but by a 
bit of fiction which made every runaway a hero and pos- 
sibly a martyr. 

Literary "hits" were uncommon in those days. 
The editor of the National Era, a weekly " Anti-slav- 
ery, Literary, and Political" newspaper, published at 
Washington, knew not what the future had in store for 
his rather meagre subscription list when he made the 
announcement at the head of his editorial page in the 
spring of 1851 of a new story entitled " L^ncle Tom's 
Cabin, or the Man that was a Thing. "^ During the run 
of the serial, although the editor was compelled fre- 
quently to apologize for the absence of instalments 
because of the non-arrival of the manuscript, readers 
began to send in testimonials accompanied by lists of 
new subscribers. " We hope she will not be in a hurry 
to finish it," wrote one, while another prayed that she 

' The case of Ableman vs. Booth, in the Wisconsin Reports for 1S59. 
- This sub-title was afterward changed to " Life Among the Lowly." 



372 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/ON 



i VOL. V.-NO. 23. 



TH« S»Tlo\Al 1:«* 1^ V. 



AD c.'iiii 
.ri the |Mr 



r.i n r iv |!i ».\. iiucl'. I'K 



might keep it going all winter. By January, the editor 
was talking of twenty thousand subscribers, and before 
the serial closed in March he had more than that num- 
ber. The matter was 
stereotyped as it ap- 
peared in the E}'a, and 
one week before the 
last instalment was due, 
" Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
appeared in two vol- 
umes in Boston. The 
demand was enormous. 
" Three paper mills are 
constantly at work man- 
ufacturing the paper, 
and three power presses 
are working twenty-four 
hours per day in print- 
ing it, and more than 
one hundred bookbind- 
ers are incessantly ply- 
ing their trade to bind 
them, and still it has 
been impossible as yet 
to supply the demand." In two months, over one hun- 
dred thousand copies had been sold at prices ranging 
from $1 to $2, plus the postage. 

In 1852, the Tribune gave five columns to a review of 
this new work of fiction in two volumes,^ in the course 
of which it said, "We arc informed by the author that 

1 A copy of the first edition of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," the title-page 
of which appears on the opposite page, is in the Library of Congress. 



TlIK NATIONAL KKA. 

WASHINGTON, JU.NK .', is'.l. 

\<>e\ KigilT ii;< < hi>:' i \ Tiit ai tiior i 
for lb. N^ik.ii»l Kr». 

l!N('IXTO.>rS(nUIN: 

oil, 

I.IKK .\M()N(i •nil: l.OWI.V. 



CMAPrtR 1 — In nhuH I'u H-wUr 11 iVftfi/MivJ In 
II Mun <>' llvn stity. 
L»te in the nfltrtioon of a chilly J»y lo Keli- 
ra»rj,lwo gontlfmfn WiTi'sittiug «lon*oTfr their 

• (••• In • woll.r.imi.hmt .lining tvirlor. Ip ihn 



HORACE GREELEY 



373 



UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 



1,1 FE AMONd THE LOWLY. 



HAKUICT l;KK(_Hi:il STilWE. 



i 



for many years of her life she avoided all allusions to 
the subject of slavery, on account of its painful and 
repulsive character, believing that it would pass away 
with the advance 
of light and civil- 
ization. The en- 
actment of the 
Fugitive Slave 
law in 1850 com- 
pelled her to look 
at the subject 
with newly awak- 
ened interest, 
and the result is 
to be found in 
the present vol- 
umes." The re- 
view expressed 
a profound con- 
viction that this 
" Uncle Tom's 
Cabin " was des- 
tined to add im- 
measurably to the 
cause of human 
freedom. 

The final effect was not seen at first. A Washing- 
ton political paper pronounced it excellent fiction, with 
its " scenes of life and frolic, which are likely to make 
the book current everywhere. North and South, for we 
are informed this book is not confined to the limits of 
our land." Another writer said that the sales at first 




BOSTON: 

JOHN p. JEWF.TT >^ COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND. OHIO: 

JEWETf, PKiXTOK i 'ffORTnlSUTOJJ. 

1S52. 



374 '^'^l^'- -'/-t'-^' WJIO MADE Till'. X.n/O.V 

were fully as large proportionately to population in one 
section as in another ; in the south as in the north. But 
to the amazement of the people of the south, the readers 
in the north accepted the work as fact instead of fiction. 
"The human being who can read it through with dry eyes 
is commended to Bainum," wrote a reader to the Ejn. 

The reason for this northern view is easily found. 
The publication of the story was coincident with the 
execution of the Fugitive Slave law of 1S50. The 
columns in which the serial appeared were surrounded 
by descriptions of the capture and return of actual fugi- 
tives. Any negro returned to bondage might be a 
saintly Uncle Tom doomed to a later death at the hands 
of some cruel overseer. Any woman with her child 
might be an Eliza trying to join her husband in a free 
land. The novelist had created a sentiment for every 
runaway slave. 

Under the influence of the printing-press, this great 
question had virtually passed beyond the politicians to 
the people. It is astonishing that party leaders still 
hoped to settle it by ignoring it and introducing some 
other subject. 1 

The election of 1852 was as nearly a farce as the 
American people, bound in their political machinery, 
have ever been compelled to go through. Each jiart)' 
in making nominations was seeking for a man without 
a record on this disturbing slavery question ; a neutral 

' In an editorial just before the Whig nomination of 1852, Greeley said : 
" And it is so easy and natural for forty or fifty good fellows around a 
bountiful dinner table to harmonize and fraternize on a suggested course, 
and fancy the people will readily fall in — forgetting that the rich, warm 
light in which the matter glows through their wine-glasses will ht absent 
when it strikes the public eye." 



HORACE GREELEY 



375 



man who would not bring tint to litmus paper; a light 
so dull that no radiance should be expected upon this 
problem, or so brilliant that it would blind the eyes of 
the people to this domestic issue. The Democrats 
selected Pierceof New 
Hampshire, almost 
unknown, and hence 
uncommitted on the 
disturbing question. 
The Whigs chose a 
war hero, General 
Winfield Scott, of the 
regular army, who was 
therefore an ideal can- 
didate. The flag of 
our country ! Glori- 
ous war record in 
Mexico! No civil rec- 
ord on anything ! 
With these ideal can- 
didates, standing on 
con servative plat- 
forms and the Com- 
promise of 1850, the 
party leaders fondly 
imagined that they Escape of a Fugitive Slave 

could continue to throw dust in the eyes of the people 
and keep down the slavery issue. ^ 

1 The Whigs had never succeeded in electing a candidate except Har- 
rison and Taylor, both war heroes. They hoped to repeat the story with 
"Old Chippewa" Scott. Lowell ridiculed this practice under "Old Tim- 
bertoes" in the first series of the " Riglow Papers." 




y^s 






«<-. F 

o ? 

a, -J= 
1-1 

o >" 

s " 



c 



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S- J= 



HORACE GREELEY 377 

If Strong men cried out because of the darkness of 
the night, indications were not wanting that a dawn' of 
new and better things was approaching. It was the 
last campaign for the eld Whig party. It had forfeited 
its life. Horace Greeley in the Tribune began to speak 
of "the late Whig party," and soon changed the name 
of his widely circulated "Whig Almanac" to "The 
Tribune Almanac." Although supporting the Whig- 
candidate for party's sake, he " spat upon " the plat- 
form, as he said editorially. With the deaths of Clay 
and Webster the compromising party perished, to be 
replaced by a new spirit of uncompromising hostility to 
the further growth of slavery. It was to come from 
the masses of sound thinking, right judging, plain peo- 
ple, who could no longer be led by a " Godlike " coun- 
sellor or "an idol of the people," but were to bring for- 
ward a new guide, untrained by surroundings other than 
their own. For years, Horace Greeley and his Tribune 
had been preparing just such an independent thinking 
constituency. His was the hand that closed the dying 
eyes of the old Whig party ; but his also was the hand 
which helped rock the cradle of the heir to the throne 
— the infant Republican party. 



CHAPTER XII 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, A NEW TYPE OF AMERICAN 

"I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born, and 
have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life, I have 
no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. 
My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of 
the county." — Address of A. Liiicoln to the voters of Sanga- 
mon county, Illinois, 1832. 

The quiescent years which immediately followed the 
compromise of 1850 gave comfort to those who had 
feared the dissolution of the Union and for the time 
proved their prediction that compromise alone could 
accomplish this salvation. The old leaders seemed to 
have passed with the old regime. Calhoun had died in 
the midst of the conciliatory measures ; two years later, 
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster passed away ; Benton 
had finished his thirty years' service in the Senate and 
was gradually retiring from national view. There 
remained only the statesmen of a later school — Cass, 
Everett, Buchanan, Marcy, Davis, and Seward — edu- 
cated men, trained in the art of diplomacy and the 
finesse of political management. Their footsteps were 
not easily regulated by the march of the people. They 
had been taught to believe that the voice of the politi- 
cian is the voice of the people ; that the masses must be 
led and are willing to be led blindly. 

378 



ABRAHAM LhWCOLN 379 

On the contrary, the time was at hand for a new 
leader, one able to hear and willing to obey the public 
will. He must come from the people themselves and be 
trained by their environment. Presumably such a char- 
acter had arrived on foot in the little village of Win- 
chester, in western Illinois, some twenty years before. 
With thirty-seven and one-half cents in his pocket, 
Stephen A. Douglas, a Vermonter, began a public 
career which placed him in the United States Senate 
before 1850, and retained him there fourteen years. 
Higher honors seemed within his reach. During the 
forty-nine ballots taken in the Democratic convention 
at Baltimore in 1852, the name of Douglas at one time 
attracted ninety-two votes, ^ although Pierce was finally 
nominated. Of these ninety-two votes not one-third 
came from the south, where the strength of the party 
lay. 

Douglas was a man of unusual ability and of pardon- 
able ambition. If he deliberately set about to gain the 
gratitude of the south before the next election, to 
secure the 117 votes which that section would hold, the 
action would not be blamable if the means employed 
should be equally free from criticism. One marvels 
that such a shrewd man should have chosen the buried 
slavery question as the means to this end. Its resur- 
rection alone would prejudice its case. However, Doug- 
las's shrewdness may have caused him to see that the lull 
was only temporary ; that it must break out again in the 
course of the western expansion of the people. The man 
who could offer a satisfactory solution for this coming 
problem must secure the good-will of both sections. 

1 The number necessary to a choice was 188. 



380 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATIOIV 

The word " Nebraska" cov^ered a vast tract of Indian 
country, extending from Iowa and Missouri to the 
Rocky Mountains, and in a north and south direction 
from Indian Territory to the Canadian line. The Cali- 
fornia migration across the plains demanded some kind 
of territorial organization, and Douglas, as chairman of 
the Senate committee on territories, brought in a report 
to that effect. Lying to the north of the slavery indus- 
tries belt, and in the due west line of free labor, the 
chances were that the laws of the movement of the 
people would make it a non-slavery country. This law 
of nature had been supplemented by the Compromise of 
1820, which admitted the slave state of Missouri, and 
then drew a hard and fast line between slave and free 
soil on the line of "thirty-six thirty."^ 

Some questioned whether an agreement so restrict- 
ing the future was binding upon succeeding generations. 
Others thought that Congress possessed no power to 
prevent slavery in a territory, but that the question 
should be left to the people who formed a state out of 
that territory. Dividing the region into two territories, 
Kansas and Nebraska, and incorporating an amendment 
explicitly repealing the Missouri Compromise, Douglas 
pushed such a bill through the Senate in thirty-three 
days, arbitrarily and almost discourteously. His political 

^ The Mason and Uixon line, the boundary between Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, which had been run by those two surveyors, became the first 
dividing line between slave and free states, simply because all the statts 
lying to the north freed their slaves. The ordinance of the Northwest 
Territory made the Ohio river an extension of this dividing line. The 
larger part of the proposed state of Missouri lay to the north of the niuutli 
of the river, but south of the head of the river. Therefore, that state was 
admitted as slave, but all other states formed from the Louisiana purchase 
w est of her and north of her southern boundary (36° 30') were to be free. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 38 1 

fortune was at stake, and he could not risk delay until 
the north had become aroused. On the last day of 
debate in the Senate, he spoke until daylight to crowded 
galleries, and in the gray light of dawn he won by a vote 
of ij to 14. The firing of cannon at the navy yard 
announced his victory, but one of his opponents truly 
said that the echoes would not die away until slavery 
itself was dead. 

Douglas followed the bill over to the House, using 
his lieutenants and the administration, and in two 
months secured its passage by 113 to 100. Excitement 
ran high; 128 speeches were made; one session of 
thirty-six hours exhausted the members ; arms were 
brought on the floor ; and at one time bloodshed was 
with difificulty avoided.^ 

The effect upon the north was beyond description. 
Douglas had said : "I shall be assailed by demagogues 
and fanatics there, without stint or moderation. Every 
opprobrious epithet will be applied to me. I shall prob- 
ably be hung in efifigy in many places. This proceed- 
ing may end my political career. But acting under the 
sense of duty which animates me, I am prepared to 
make the sacrifice." He made the mistake of think- 
ing that the ensuing "tornado" had been raised "by 
Abolitionists, and Abolitionists alone." The northern 
newspapers almost regardless of party blew the first 
blasts. They devoted columns to descriptions of the 

1 This theory of home rule, or " squatter sovereignty," had been formu- 
lated by Cass, of Michigan, some years before. Douglas's bill declared 
that it was " the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery 
into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the 
people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institu- 
tions in their own way." 



382 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

indignation meetings, and one declared tliat if it had 
three times as much space and were issued thrice a 
day room would still be wanting for the resolutions. 
Greeley assured Douglas that he had made more 
Abolitionists than Garrison and Phillips had done in 
fifty years. Ten state legislatures added their voices of 
protest. Two thousand censuring sermons were said 
to have been preached in New England. Memorials 
poured into Washington. One was presented which 
bore the signatures of over three thousand clergymen. 
Douglas himself presented one from five hundred Chi- 
cago clergymen. Rash characters were not lacking to 
write him insulting rejoicings at the recent death of 
his wife, a southern woman, and to predict still more 
bereavements. 

Stephen Arnold Douglas became Benedict Arnold 
Douglas. Men demanded to be shown the thirty pieces 
of silver for which he had betrayed his master — the 
people. In derision, that sum was sent him by some 
women of Ohio. He testified that he could have trav- 
elled from Washington to Chicago by the light of him- 
self burning in efifigy. When he did reach home the 
people of Chicago jeered and hissed him until, after 
three hours' attempt, he retired from the platform with- 
out speaking. If, as his critics said, Douglas had "de- 
sired to buy the South at tlie presidential shambles," 
he jmid the penalty.^ He may have gained the good- 
will of Missouri and the few states directly interested 

1 It should he stated that Douglas and his friends always contended 
that he had been moved by his sense of justice and not by ambition. He 
used frequently to say : " God Almighty placed man on the earth and told 
him to choose between good and evil. That was the origin of the Nebraska 
bill." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 383 

in opening new slave territory, but his scheme did not 
appeal to the Gulf states, where the price of slaves 
would be increased with each extension of slavery. He 
lost the leadership of the young Democracy of the 
north, those who might wish to migrate to Kansas but 
had no desire to compete with slave labor. The Ger- 
mans shared this feeling, and they held the preponder- 
ance of political power in the northwest. 

The farthest-reaching effect of this reopening of the 
slavery question was not the failure of Douglas, but the 
turning of public men again into politics. Their ser- 
vices were needed to fill the breach made in the com- 
promise bulwarks of a free north. Among these was 
the man destined by a natural endowment of sound 
judgment and an environment of practical training to 
assume the vacant leadership which Douglas had tried 
for but lost. " I was losing interest in politics when 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me 
again," declared Abraham Lincoln in a subsequent 
speech. Douglas was in i860 what was called a west- 
ern man and a man of the people ; yet he had been 
born in Vermont, and represented only the transplanted 
product of the west. Lincoln was for two genei'ations 
at least the creation of the American frontier. 

The westward movement of the people had produced 
that peculiar line along the front edge of population 
known as the frontier.^ Occupying succeeding lines 
of position westwardly, its advance may be noted by 
chronological order. The type of people on the Atlantic 

1 A study of the sociological aspects of the building of the American 
nation during the crossing of the continent may be found in the author's 
'•The Expansion of the American People." 



384 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



coast plain was a reflection of the old world. Clay rep- 
resented the first frontier after the movement across the 
mountains had begun. Jackson, of Tennessee, illustrates 
a frontier farther removed from eastern influence, and 
therefore a cruder and more native element. Abraham 
Lincoln represents a later and more westward location, 
and is therefore a still more representative product of 
American environment. Clay and Jackson were born 




Cartoon on Lincoln coercing tiik South 



on the Atlantic slope. Lincoln was entirely a creation 
of the inland region. If the American people, under 
possibilities of wealth and luxury surpassing those of 
Rome, have avoided the enervation and effeminacy which 
destroyed that nation, it is largely because of this fron- 
tier, which has constantly stimulated and revived the 
older portion with rich young blood from near to nature's 
heart. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 385 

Lincoln is the first and, by a combination of circum- 
stances, the foremost representative of this isolated 
frontier type. At the same time, he is the last of his 
kind, since the rapid increase of means of communica- 
tion and the passing of the crude frontier have made a 
duplication impossible. He was a new type of American. 
Those who believe in the preparation of an agent for 
a given purpose need not search far for the influences 
which fitted Lincoln for his peculiar task. 

The environment of the frontier begot self-help. This 
was illustrated by every step in the training of Lincoln. 
Whether mastering English grammar at the age of 
twenty-three or six books of Euclid when he was past 
thirty-five, whether he guided his flatboat down the 
Sangamon, or procured a compass and chain, studied 
Flint and Gibson a little, and "went at it " as a deputy 
surveyor, the lesson was preparing him for a rulership 
where he must cast aside a multitude of discordant 
counsels and depend upon his own judgment. The 
problems of the frontier life were not to be solved 
by a text-book ; neither were the problems confronting 
that President who should follow the reopening of the 
slavery discord. Precedent was wanting in both cases. 
Originality was demanded. 

The spirit of investigation engendered by life on the 
frontier was an excellent fitting for thorough inspection 
and for slow action. When the question of internal 
improvements was paramount in Sangamon county in 
1832, Lincoln in his address to the voters was able to 
speak from actual experience of the stages of water 
in the Sangamon river concerning the possibility of 
making it navigable for large craft. His patent for 

2C 



386 THE MEN WHO MADE THE XAT/OJV 

buoying up vessels over shoal water was due to flatboat 
experience. When he gave his lecture on " Discoveries, 
Inventions, and Improvements," he was reflecting this 
side of the border training. His dissection of the me- 
chanical toys of his children illustrates the same thing. 
For his utensils and tools, the frontiersman must depend 
largely upon his ingenuity, and must be extremely care- 
ful in their use, since they could not easily be replaced. 
The peculiar characteristic of Lincoln's administration 
was, that he never did anything so hastily that he was 
obliged to undo it. 

When Lincoln addressed the people his language was 
the simple speech of the frontier, convincing in its direct- 
ness and offensive only to' overtrained ears. When he 
delayed issuing the Proclamation of Emancipation, in 
accord with his promise to himself and his Maker, until 
the enemy had been driven out of Maryland, he was 
simply demonstrating the reliance of the borderer on a 
personal God.^ In the lonely vastnesses of frontier sur- 
roundings, religious feeling was closely akin to both 
superstition and melancholy. In his private correspond- 
ence, Lincoln sometimes says, " I alwa)s was super- 
stitious," and again, "I was drawn to it by fate." In 
condoling with a friend upon his fears lest he do not 
love the woman he is about to wed, Lincoln insists that 
"our forebodings are all the worst sort of nonsense." 
But he adds, "You know the hell I have suffered on 
that point and how tender I am upon it." Sometimes 
he is "quite free from the 'hypo,'" and again "My 
spirits are gotten so low that I feel that I would rather 

' Chase, Secretary of tlie Treasury, describes tlie dramatic situation in 
his diary for September 22, 1862. See Shucker's " Life of Chase," p. 453. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 387 

be in any place in the world than here." Only an 
appreciation of this element in Lincoln's life can explain 
his conduct in his love affairs ; nothing save his own 
realization of this tendency can explain the manner in 
wliich this strong man by his homely stories and sorry 
jests tried to avoid the end to which this melancholy 
would naturally lead. 

Removed from the conservatism of the older states, 
the frontiersmen were never bound by strict allegiance 
to party. Nearly every variation from the established 
parties had come from the western people. This ten- 
dency was now to have a fresh illustration, and Lincoln's 
attitude was to be typical of his people. 

The long-continued agitation of the slavery question 
had cut deep lines across the Whig and Democratic 
parties, although enough supporters remained in each 
to maintain their existence. Men from both parties, 
who opposed the extension of slavery in the territories 
in general, had formed the Free-Soil party.^ Where 
its membership was made up most largely of former 
Democrats, the party was called Free Democrat or Free- 
Soil Democrat. The passage of the Douglas bill crystal- 
lized these elements, together with the Know-Nothings,^ 
into a regular party. A state convention was called at 
Jackson, Michigan,'^ July 6, of "all our fellow-citizens, 
without reference to former political associations, who 
think that the time has arrived for a union at the North 

1 The Free-Soil party was formed from a fusion of the Liberty party and 
the Barnburners of New York in 1840. 

2 The Know-Nothing or Native American party, formed about 1842, was 
another of these offshoots which indicated the poHtical unrest of the times. 

^ A local convention was held at Ripon, Wisconsin, in March preceding, 
to form a new party. 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



to protect liberty from being overthrown and down-trod- 
den." Thousands gathered under the oaks near the race 

track, on ground 
now a part of the 
city of Jackson, 
adopted the name 
" Republican," and 
drew up a platform 
protesting against 
the repeal of the 
Compromise line 
and the opening 
of the territories 
to the chances of 
slavery. Candi- 
dates for the state 
offices were nomi- 
nated on this plat- 
form.^ 

Similar "Repub- 
lican " party con- 
ventions were held 
a week later in Wisconsin, Vermont, Ohio, and Massachu- 
setts. During the ensuing October, while the Illinois 
state fair was being held at Springfield, public announce- 
ment was made, at a political meeting, of a convention to 
organize the Republican party in that state. Lincoln 

1 The Jefferson men were called " Republicans " in iSoo. After the end 
of the era of good feeling, the Clay and Adams men were sometimes called 
" National Republicans." The Whigs frequently used the word " Repub- 
lican" in their platforms. It was by no means a new name, but under it 
was organized a new party. The favorite campaign song of i860 had for 
a chorus, " Ain't I glad 1 joined the Republicans." 




SCKNE OF THE RkPUBLICAN CONVENTION, 

Jackson, Michigan 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 389 

objected to his nai.ie being added later to the call for a 
Republican state corvention. " I suppose my opposition 
to the principle of slavery is as strong as that of any 
member of the Republican party ; but I have also sup- 
posed that the extent to which I feel authorized to carry 
that opposition, practically, was not at all satisfactory to 
that party." He was satisfied later, and became an ac- 
tive member of the party. In its national convention in 
1856, he received loi votes for the nomination for Vice- 
President. He was one of four men constituting a 
" mass " meeting at Springfield to ratify the action of 
the Republican state convention. 

The Illinois friends of this unusual man began to 
entertain the most ambitious hopes for him, and in their 
unskilled but effective manner they tried to make his 
good qualities known to the east. He had acquired 
some fame as a stump speaker at the agricultural fairs, 
in the local campaigns, and especially as the opponent 
of the " Little Giant," Douglas, in the arranged debate 
of 1858.^ He was also known as a lecturer. One must 
appreciate the use to which the lyceum was put in the 
middle west, where newspapers were few and periodicals 
a luxury, to understand why Lincoln trained himself by 
writing serious lectures upon Law, Slavery, Temperance, 
Sectionalism, and The Perpetuation of our Political Insti- 
tutions. He delivered some of these lectures before vari- 
ous clubs throughout Illinois and Kansas. 

1 Political debates were not at all uncommon in the western country. 
At nearly every patriotic celebration or agricultural fair there was " speak- 
ing," which frequently led to an impromptu debate. Lincoln and Douglas 
often met thus upon the platform prior to the set debate between them, 
which was held at seven different places and covered several months. The 
immediate prize was the United States Senate, and Douglas won. 



390 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

It was this combined reputation which secured for 
him an invitation to deliver a "political lecture" in 
New York City, although he was afterward criticised 
for accepting ^200 for it.^ The Tribune declared that 
*' No man ever before made such an impression on his 
first appeal to a New York audience." Those who 
expected to be amused by a medley of homely stories 
and crude western colloquialisms found a polished dic- 
tion oddly at variance with his reputation among them. 
The habit of recasting the thoughts of others in the 
best words he could find had given Lincoln command 
of the style of the classics with the vocabulary of the 
Saxon, whenever he chose to exercise them. 

If Lincoln's friends hoped that a favorable impression 
made in New York could persuade the eastern people 
to look upon him as a presidential possibility, they could 
not have read with patience the statement made in the 
most enthusiastic report of the lecture, that " it is not 
probable that Mr. Lincoln will be heard again in our 
city this year, if ever." Nor could they have been more 
pleased with the three cheers for Seward which the 
audience gave before dispersing. Their candidate was 
truly in the enemy's country. 

With all his ability, Seward was not the man for the 
hour. He would have dealt with the problem as a 
trained statesman. Not indeed along the old line of 
compromise and conciliation, but as a radical northern 
man, hostile to the slavery system and hostile to the 

1 The invitation came from the Young Men's Central RepubHcan Union, 
and the address was delivered in the Cooper Institute. Lincoln had sup- 
j)osed he was to speak in Beecher's church. Since an admission fee was 
charged, he could not see why he should be criticised for receiving pay. 



ABRAHAM LIXCOLX 39 1 

slave owners. Some Princeton students, who burned 
him in effigy as the supposedly remote cause of the 
John Brown raid, were not the only ones who dreaded 
while they detested his attitude. Lincoln was never 
accused of supporting Brown. The final great task 
before the new leader was not to kill slavery, not even 
to suppress rebellion ; but to preserve the Union and 
especially to restore the Union. A rabid anti-slavery 
man who believed in a higher law might have brought 
about the former ends ; he could not have accomplished 
the latter. Bayonets could be only a temporary agency. 
As the campaign year of i860 opened, Greeley declared 
in the Tribune that the political leaders talked to the 
people as if they believed them to be fools, and at the 
same time he gave warning that the people could not be 
misled much longer. When the time came for discuss- 
ing possible candidates, the Courier and Enquirer said 
that the Republican party, being sane, would nomi- 
nate no other man than William Henry Seward. This 
was the accepted opinion in the eastern states, with the 
possible exception of Greeley, who favored Bates, of 
Missouri. Seward, virtually the head of the Republi- 
can party, a college-bred man, trained by a long career 
in public life, an unyielding advocate of northern prin- 
ciples, where the strength of the party lay, possessed all 
the qualifications necessary for an "available" candi- 
date. Aside from personal animosity against Seward, 
Greeley was kten enough to see that the times demanded 
a change ; that the continued westward movement had 
brought the period for another shifting of the balance 
of political power. He gave space in his columns to 
letters from western correspondents describing as a pos- 



39^ 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAriON 



sible candidate "Abe Lincoln." An "Old Man " sent 
a short biography from Mason county, Illinois, describ- 
ing" Lincoln reading his borrowed law books by candle 
light and splitting rails to pay for the candle. His kind- 
ness was illustrated by a story of his helping an oppo- 
nent in a law case. Another correspondent told how 
young Lincoln had pulled fodder two days to pay for 
Weems's " Life of Washington " which he had borrowed 
and had accidentally damaged by water. From an " Hon- 
est Carpenter" came the story of Lincoln, the man of 
the people, defending a case for two days and charging 
a poor man only two dollars. " A Thrilling Episode in 
the Life of * Abe Lincoln ' " was a description of his 
defence of young Armstrong for murder. The men of 
the prairie might lack political training, but they knew 
how to bring things to pass. 

The peoi)le of the eastern states began gradually to 
learn about the campaign methods of the westerners. 
They heard of the scene in the Illinois state Republi- 
can convention at Decatur, which met in " a rudely con- 
structed shelter," when two men came forward from the 
entrance bearing a banner stretched between two com- 
mon walnut fence rails. On the banner was printed : — 



ABE LINCOLN 

The Rail Candidate 

for President in i860 

Two rails, being part of 3000 cut in 1830, ten 

miles south of Decatur, by Abe Lincoln and 

John Hank-s 



ABRAHAM L/JVCOLiV 393 

It was said that Lincoln himself rose above such 
small tricks to catch popular favor ; that when asked 
about the rails he had said : " I did land in Macon 
county a very poor boy ; cleared ground, put up a log 
house, and split about 3000 rails. Now, whether these 
two rails are specimens of what I made then, of course 
I cannot say; but one thing I zvill say — I've made a 
good many better-looking rails than either of these." 
The correspondent who sent this story to the eastern 
papers added that this reply "brought down the 
house." ^ 

As public interest began to turn more to this unpol- 
ished man of the west and his crude though virile con- 
stituency, newspaper reporters were sent to sound the 
people in that locality. One wrote back that " here on 
the shores of one of the Upper Lakes and near the head 
springs of the Father of Waters, you catch the first 
breath of western enthusiasm for 'Old Abe.' The 
country has so long been accustomed to contemplate 
only the political sections of ' north and south ' that it 
is slow to grasp the idea that there is a West — that it 
is mighty in number and power — that it is determined 
to make its influence felt in the politics of the nation." 
The abuses of Buchanan's administration which culmi- 
nated in the Covode investigation was breeding a spirit 
of distrust of professional statesmen. Another corre- 
spondent wrote: "You eastern men, politicians espe- 



1 This story, and especially the motto on the lianner, was printed in 
many different versions in the eastern papers. The one given here is 
taken from the 'J'ri/nine. The story as it reached England made Lincoln 
and Hanks split 3000 rails in one day. See " A Memoir of Abraham 
Lincoln, President-elect," London, 1861. 



394 'I^^^^- yJ/£"A" WHO MADE THE NAT J ON 

cially, can hardly realize the strong hold upon the 
western heart which can be gained by a man like 
Lincoln — a pioneer as well as a statesman; a great 
man, and yet a simple and unostentatious dweller on 
the prairie like the rest of us." 

No doubt, in the light of later events, the Seward 
pjople deplored the holding of the Republican national 
convention in Chicago — the enemy's country. But 
the western people were ever ready to reply that the 
party had really been organized by them before it was 
taken up in the east. No convention had ever been 
held so far from the Atlantic coast. Political power 
had drifted westward unperceived. Of the eight men 
who made a showing on the first ballot of the conven- 
tion, five came from west of the Alleghany Mountains. 
In finesse the westerners soon showed themselves the 
equal of their more trained opponents. The " shouters," 
whom the Seward men had brought along, took posses- 
sion of the great " wigwam " the first day,^ but while 
they were serenading their candidate that night, the 
Lincoln supporters, headed by a strong-voiced captain 
of a lake steamer, packed the galleries and did the 
shouting on the day it was most effective. Correspond- 
ents wrote that "the Chicago mob" did the loudest 
shouting, although the Seward people started it. 

On the third ballot the convention was stampeded 
fjr Lincoln, and the man on the roof of the "wigwam," 
who was hauling up by a string the results of the voting 
and throwing the papers down to the crowd in the street, 

1 This was a large temporary frame structure on Lake street, near the 
river. It was decorated tor the occasion l)y the women of Chicago. Its 
site is now occupied by a business block. 



ABRAHAM LIXCOLIV 



395 



was able to announce that " Old Uncle Abe " had the 
prize. The roar of the crowd and the boom of cannon 
started a campaign of noise if not of education. Rati- 
fication meetings were held all through the Mississippi 
valley, at which " rails, wedges, and ox-goads, ten feet 
high," were to be seen. Some young men desiring to 
protect their shoulders and heads from the dripping 
of their torches, made capes and caps of oilcloth, and 
this " Wide Awake " organization was imitated every- 




LilNLOLiN Ai) GRLi.LL.\'S MaN 



where. Rails were carried on the shoulders of men, 
and mounted flatboats were drawn through the streets. 
It was said in the western vernacular that Lincoln 
would " spread like wildfire over the prairies," and that 
he would "sweep the northwest like a herd of buffalo." 
The nomination was naturally a disappointment to 
the Seward people. Some declared that it was "a mat- 
ter of impulse," "purely an accident," and "decided 
more by the shouts and applause of the vast con- 



396 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/OAT 

course." ^ Thurlovv Weed, of the Albany Evening Jour- 
nal, shed bitter tears ; but Greeley wrote to his paper 
that the Illinois people were claiming a victory of the 
people over the politicians. " It will be a campaign of 
the 1840 stamp." 

When a speaker in the New York ratification meet- 
ing said that " if we had had a choice we would have 
preferred the great statesman from New York," he was 
greeted with "prolonged applause." Yet he begged 
the audience to allow the Lethean stream to flow over 
their disappointments and blot them out forever. Most 
of the speakers, according to even Republican papers, 
were "lugubrious in spirits." When the Brooklyn 
"wigwam" was dedicated, a speaker thought it "a 
deplorable lesson of the Chicago convention that a man 
who had adhered his life long to a principle, which prin- 
ciple built up the party, should have his throat cut from 
ear to ear by that party." At Albany, " very many 
were heartsick at the result of the nomination." Ac- 
cording to the Tribune correspondent in Washington, 
the keynotes of the ratification meeting at that place 
were "disappointment" and "acquiescence." In Pitts- 
burg, Seward's defeat was "sadly received," but "all 
deferred to the wisdom of the Convention." The Nciv 
York Herald thought the Democratic party, if it could 
get together, would "sweep the country, through advan- 
tage given it by the Chicago philosophers." - 

1 Henry J. Raymond, in the Nezu York Times, said, "Tlie arrangements 
for the convention were in the hands of Mr. Lincoln's friends, and they 
had been made with special reference to securing the largest possible con- 
course of his immediate neighbors and political supporters." 

2 A campaign " Life " \\ as a necessity. The official one of Lincoln 
could not describe the national and dijilomatic jjositiuns he had held, but 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



397 



A Philadelphia editor asked : " Why should Lincoln 
be President ? He has no record. He is unknown in 





f 1 


•1 . LIFE A-NniTIiLlC SERVICES M V 

[HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN '" '^ 


i 


• ^*N| 




'tk^jf 


'h ''■ 


\ . 


^^ 




1 


I'.V 1 ' , 




•1 




/ 




.^"T-'if'v-"-'-"- ■■ ■";. .'' 


J^ 





Congress. His coarse style was seen in the Lincoln- 
Douglas debate. He is only a flatboatman and a rail- 
splitter ; a county court lawyer and a ready stump 
speaker." A Democratic paper characterized him as 
" a third-rate, slang-whanging lawyer, possessing no 

had to be satisfied with describing how he had once been kicked by a 
horse, had shot a wild turkey, and had kept a store which " winked " out. 
It was humiHating to the eastern Republicans. 



398 THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 

proper qualification but as Old Abe Lincoln, Old Uncle 
Abe, Honest Old Abe, and people are expected to 
accept nicknames instead of fitness." 

Among some of the eastern Republican papers, there 
was at first a ludicrous attempt to improve this product 
of the western plains. One tried to find a good family 
tree for him ; to show that he came originally of aristo- 
cratic blood. Under a headline, " Good Blood," one 
article traced his family to the Lincolns of Hingham, 
Massachusetts, "who came over in 1637." "He un- 
doubtedly came of this parentage, since he has the same 
qualifications as the New Englanders." Editors in the 
middle states claimed that he was descended from the 
Lincolns of Virginia, who had formerly been residents 
of Chester, Pennsylvania. Greeley said that " some 
fastidious gentlemen appear to be a good deal disturbed 
at the presentation made of the Republican candidate 
for the presidency as having once been a rail-splitter" ; 
but that it proved the possibilities of America, since a 
man emanating from the class called mud-sills should 
have risen so high. 

After the convention had adjourned, many of the 
delegates from the older states paid a visit to Spring- 
field to see this man whom accident, as they supposed, 
had placed upon their ticket. They departed saying that 
they would trust his honest face anywhere. Reporters 
in the governor's ofifice in the State House described 
the crowds,! which had come from Chicago "to see the 
elephant." Some of the Ohio delegates brought back 
with them a rail, "one of the 3000 split by old Abe." 

' Owing to the courtesy of the governor of Illinois, Lincoln received the 
delegations in the governor's office instead of his own rather liniitcil home. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 399 

When the nominating committee arrived, there was 
manifest a certain lack of reverence for the prairie 
candidate, together with some apprehension for the 
conventionaHties of the occasion. The speaker who 
introduced the delegates was reported in the eastern 
papers as saying, " Come up, gentlemen ; it's nobody 
but Old Abe Lincoln." One of the number said after- 
ward that he was afraid lest he should meet " a gigantic 
rail-splitter with the manners of a flatboatman and the 
ue:liest face in creation " ; but he added, " he's a com- 
plete gentleman." 

On this occasion, the neighbors, with true western hos- 
pitality, brought in refreshments of various kinds, but 
Lincoln sent them away and regaled his visitors with ice 
water. One newspaper correspondent described Mrs. 
Lincoln ; " standing beside her almost gigantic husband, 
she appears almost petite, but is really about the average 
height of ladies." Another assured the public that she 
was "presentable." 

It was the fate of this isolated environment to make 
a man raised in it misunderstood by those of his con- 
temporaries who had not experienced its peculiar forma- 
tive influences. It is the natural inclination of each 
man to judge others by his own standard. Few who 
looked for the new leader imagined that he would come 
from beyond the mountains ; fewer yet that he would 
come from a lower class of society, but little removed 
from the "poor white" of the south. If competition 
with slavery caused that class, it was especially retribu- 
tive that the system itself should breed the man under 
whom it was destroyed. 

It is easy now in retrospect to laud Lincoln, and place 



400 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



him upon a pedestal as the foreordained agency to smite 
the shackles from the slave ; but it is harder to trace the 
causes which made him the agency and still more diffi- 
cult to realize how much misunderstood he was at the 
time. Much of his campaign was taken up, not in prov- 
ing that he was the friend of the slave, but that he was 
not an Abolitionist, ^ had never favored the political 




The Nigger in the Woodpile" 



equality of the black and the white, and had never 
declared for emancipation even in the District of 
Columbia save with compensation to the owner. As 
a border man he had seen the evils of the system, but 
he was a lawyer believing in preventive legislation for 
the future and not retroactive legislation for the past. 
Of southern descent, he believed in the right of property 

1 Two of the many cartoons representing Lincoln and Greeley as 
Abolitionists arc reproduced on this and a preceding page. 



ABRAHAM LINCOUY 401 

and home rule — the two principles for which the south 
was contending. As a northern resident he believed in 
liberty and equality — the principles for which the north 
was contending. 

During the campaign, to every delegation which came 
to beg a promise that he would not interfere with slavery 
in the states, he insisted that his words at no time could 
have given alarm to the southern people ; that as a 
northern man he had always been known to be opposed 
to the system; that as President he would enforce the 
laws ; and if any power could be found in the Constitu- 
tion or the laws, enabling him to interfere with slavery 
in the states, he would do so. He knew full well that 
no such power existed. Even after his election, he 
wrote to Alexander Hamilton Stevens, whom he had 
known in Congress : " Is it possible that the South 
entertains fears that a Republican administration would 
directly or indirectly interfere with their slaves or with 
them about their slaves .-* The South would be in no 
more danger in this respect than it was in the days of 
Washington." 

Perhaps no President-elect had ever been seen by so 
few people at large as Abraham Lincoln. This may 
explain the extended system of invitation arranged by 
the Republicans to have Lincoln pass through the prin- 
cipal northern cities on his way to be inaugurated. 
Such a post-election tour was indeed a novelty. Or the 
purpose may have been to counteract secession and to 
create additional supporters for the coming administra- 
tion. Attempt was made to have Bates, of Missouri, 
and others join the "grand cavalcade." No one can 
believe that the initiation of this visionary project lay 
2 D 



402 



THE MEN IV HO MADE THE NATION 



with the plain man ostensibly at the head of it, but 
rather that he was in the hands of his friends. Noth- 
ing could possibly come of it. The President dared not 
commit himself in his speeches. Lacking the gift of 
saying nothing gracefully, he was obliged to mouth 
commonplaces which satisfied no one. If he tried to 
brighten up these compulsory speeches with some of 




his subtle wit or naive jokes, they fell harshly on the 
ears of men deeply oppressed by the solemnity of the 
times. 

No indignity was offered the party, but there was a 
sneering tone in all the eastern papers reporting the 
progress of this wild west caravan. " Old Abe kissed 
by a Pretty Girl " was a poor headline to add dignity to 



ABRAHAM LINCOLh' 403 

a President, even if it appeared in a Republican news- 
paper.^ " Simple Susan " was the nickname for the 
rail-splitter in other papers. Northern cartoonists pic- 
tured him supporting the dignity of his ofifice on the 
point of bayonets or as a hunter recoiling from his first 
shot at the bird Confederacy. The New York City 
committee of reception, boarding his train at Albany, 
tarried at one end of the car and viewed with aristo- 
cratic horror Mrs. Lincoln adjusting the President's tie 
and '' fixing him up a little bit." They, like others, 
saw the exterior man only. They could not go beneath 
the surface. They did not realize, as is now seen in 
retrospect, that Nature had departed from her usual 
form and had reverted to a rudimentary type near to 
her own likeness.^ They contrasted him in his manners 
and appearance with the polished Seward, who would 
have adorned this great office. 

New York City received him in "a sulky unbroken 
silence, such as never before characterized so great 
a New York crowd." The same witness,^ standing 



1 The Xew York Tribune, February 18, 1S61. This incident of Grace 
Bedell, which occurred at Westlield, Indiana, was indicative of the great 
heart in a homely man, who could not be made unnatural by being chosen 
President. 

- " Nature, they say, doth dote. 
And cannot make a man 
Save on some worn-out plan, 
Repeating us by rote : 

For him her Old World moulds aside she threw, 
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
Of the unexhausted West, 
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new." 

— Lowell, Contmemoration Ode, 

3 Walt Whitman, the poet, himself a resident of that city. 



404 The men who made the natioiV 

amidst the enormous crowd opposite the Astor House 
when the distinguished guest arrived, saw a tall figure 
which " step'd leisurely out of the centre of these 
barouches, paus'd leisurely on the sidewalk, look'd up 
at the granite walls and looming architecture of the 
grand old hotel, — then, after a relieving stretch of 
arms and legs, turn'd round for over a minute to slowly 
and good-humoredly scan the appearance of the vast 
and silent crowd." Walt Whitman feared to hear at any 
moment the crack of the assassin's pistol, or, escaping 
that, some marked insult or indignity. " For he pos- 
sessed no personal popularity at all in New York City 
and very little political." The whole reception was 
just such a " dash of comedy as Shakspere puts in his 
blackest tragedy." 

The culmination of this most unfortunate trip occurred 
at Harrisburg, when the President-elect, yielding again 
to the persuasion of his friends, abandoned the tour and 
slipped into Washington by night. Even the replacing 
of his high hat by a comfortable soft felt was sufficient 
ground for the story that he went in disguise. Fate 
was trying to show in his true light this uncouth noble- 
man whom she had brought forward for the great task ; 
but, to the people, Fate seemed trying to humble their 
pride still further by fresh evidences of his crudity. For- 
tunately, becoming President could not spoil Lincoln. 
The White House was to him a place of residence — 
nothing more. A reception was simply a meeting with 
friends. But one may imagine the consternation of his 
forced supporters and the delight of his enemies when 
the story was freely circulated that at his first reception 
he came into the drawing-room holding Mrs. Lincoln 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



405 



by the hand and, to relieve the situation, remarked, 
" Here come the long and short of it." 

After the inauguration, the eastern statesmen, whom 
he had taken into his cabinet for the sake of party har- 
mony, slowly awoke 
to the fact that Lin- 
coln was the Presi- 
dent. It seemed 
incredible that this 
untrained man, who 
opened cabinet ses- 
sions with readings 
from wretched "com- 
ic " papers of the day, 
and who interlarded 
the gravest discus- 
sions with his back- 
woods stories, could 
safely guide the gov- 
ernment without 
their dictation. Only 
in the later light 
may one see how this dallying man was saving the 
Union. 

If Lincoln had yielded to Greeley and other hotbloods 
and declared emancipation under war powers before he 
had exhausted his civil powers, he would have destroyed 
the little law-abiding sense preserved through an aggra- 
vating civil war. His border training had taught him 
caution and patience. Few civil wars, if any, have been 
followed by so little punishment inflicted upon the van- 
quished by the victors. No forfeitures of life or even 




Mr. Ready-to-Hai.t" 



406. THE MEN 117/0 MADE THE NAT/UiV 

liberty for any time, few forfeitures of estates and those 
with due compensation, no working of treason or at- 
tainder of blood, marked the close of the contest. The 
sense of law, order, and fairness had been preserved by 
the deliberate movements of the President. 

If Lincoln had closed the war by compromise, as so 
many begged that he would do, the Union would have 
been impaired, and slavery, the basic cause of the con- 
flict, would have remained. But the borderer had never 
learned to compromise ; that was left to the professional 
statesman. Nature, the standing enemy of the fron- 
tiersman, neither gives nor takes quarter, and that was 
the school in which this unprofessional statesman had 
been taught. 

If at any time Lincoln had met any representative of 
the Confederacy, as he was frequently urged to do, he 
would have recognized the existence of another govern- 
ment within the territory occupied by the United States, 
and the Union could never have regained its dignity and 
supremacy. But his sound judgment and tact, trained 
by experience for emergencies, gave back the central 
government as pure and uncompromised as when it was 
entrusted to his hands. 

Frequent disappointment and long delays taught the 
backwoodsman patience. Generations before, the fron- 
tier of Virginia had taught a soldier the same lesson of 
retreat and waiting. Washington, the wealthy and high- 
born Virginian, would not have expressed it as did this 
first great typical American, " I never cross the Sanga- 
mon until I come to it "' ; but the principle was the same. 
In floating down the Mississippi, Lincoln had found it 
sufficient to meet the obstacles of each day ; as President, 



ABRAHAM UAXOLN 407 

he never anticipated the problems of the next day or the 
next year. In this he furnishes a striking contrast to 
his successor. 

Therefore, during the progress of the war, Lincoln 
never troubled himself with the question of how the 
Union was to be restored when the war should be closed ; 
how the taint of secession was to be wiped out ; what 
should be done with the leaders of the fallen enterprise ; 
what the status of the freedman should be. Although a 
lover of the law, he had little toleration for its sophis- 
tries and its mazes. He would apply to legal questions 
the simple tests of his early life and say, " This is right." 
His simple nature, unprejudiced by class distinctions, 
would have exercised its accustomed charity toward a 
vanquished foe. His sympathy as a borderer, a curse 
to him during the war, would have been a blessing after 
its close. Years before, he had said of the southern 
people : " If slavery did not now exist among them, 
they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among 
us, we should not instantly give it up." 

To say that had Lincoln lived, the country might have 
been spared the dark period of reconstruction,^ is specu- 
lation. Yet such a conclusion is forced by his simple 
words on this subject spoken to a serenading party on 
the night after the fall of Richmond and but three days 

1 During the years following the close of the Civil War, while the 
southern people, starved into submission, but unconvinced that they were 
wrong, were trying to adjust their new relations with the freedmen, many 
northern statesmen believed that they could be brought back to their 
personal and commercial relations by the force which had been employed 
in restoring their political relations. To this unfortunate period the term 
" reconstruction " is applied. It may be said to have ended with the final 
withdrawal of the Federal troops in 1S77. 



408 



THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION 



before his death. For four years, Congress had been 
anticipating this question of reconstructing the Union 
and had been splitting hairs over words. Lincoln said 
that whether the states had been out of the Union or 
not was merely a "pernicious abstraction." " VVe are 
all agreed that the seceded States, so called, are out of 




Lincoln's Last Receition 



their proper practical relations with the Union, and that 
the sole object of the government, civil and military, in 
regard to those States, is to again get them into that 
proper practical relation." Nothing could be simpler. 

Walt Whitman, who had become a hospital nurse in 
Washington, thought he saw something new in Lincoln's 
face as the long war days drew to a close. " It was that 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



409 



new virtue unknown to other lands, and hardly yet really 
known here — Unionism." At his last reception, ^ Whit- 
man saw Lincoln "dressed all in black, with white kid 
gloves and a claw-hammer coat, receiving, as in duty 
bound, shaking hands, looking very disconsolate and as 
if he would give anything to be somewhere else." A 
few weeks later. Whitman felt " as if the world had come 
to an end " when he heard in the early dawn the news- 
boys crying the assassination of the President. A few 



TH E raESIDEWT IS DEA D! 

WAR DEPARTMENT, 

Washington, April 15, 1865. 

To MiJ. GEN. DH, 

Abraham Lincoie died tMs 
mornmg at 22 minates after 
Seven o'clock 

E.ESTiUn'ON.Sec.ofWar. 



hours more and the dead walls were placarded with the 
black-bordered bulletins of the Secretary of War an- 
nouncing the end. 

All the mysticism of the border and of Lincoln's early 
life seemed to appear as the end drew nigh. Premoni- 
tions in this man of destiny cannot be satisfactorily dis- 
missed as creations of a disordered intellect. As well 



^ The illustration of Lincoln's last reception reproduced on the opposite 
page is taken from an old lithograph in the Library of Congress. 



4IO THE MEN WHO MADE THE NAT/0 IV 

might one attempt to assign Lincoln's recourse to read- 
ing Scripture prophecy and mysteries to the same cause. 
He is not to be judged by ordinary rules. Few men 
would have dared to describe to a cabinet the vision of 
his own death, even if he thought he had seen it. Few 
would have ventured to predict a military victory solely 
on the recurrence of a former dream of a vessel coming 
into a harbor in full sail. To Whitman's poetic mind, 
the interpretation of the dream was otherwise. The 
precious ship of the Union had been saved ; she was 
even now entering the port amidst the rejoicing of the 
people; but — the captain of the vessel lay dead upon 
the deck. 

" The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, 
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won ; 
Exult O shores, and ring O bells ! 

But I with mournful tread, 
Walk the deck my Captain lies. 
Fallen cold and dead." 



INDEX 



Abolition reform, 358-368, 382, 400. 

Adams, John, quoted, 3, 55, 80, 127; 
and Samuel Adams, 61 ; delegate to 
First Continental Congress. 77, 84- 
104; on commander-in-chief, no; 
on Independence, 111-118; chosen 
Vice-President, 186-188 ; becomes 
President, 215; war measures of, 
223 ; on election of 1800, 228 ; retires 
to his farm, 230. 

Adams, John Quincy, 266, 272, 284, 
288-294, 310- 

Adams, Samuel, the father of, 49 ; 
appears in Boston town meeting, 
50-53; suggests committees of cor- 
respondence, 51 ; on the Boston 
Massacre, 56-60; attracts others to 
the patriot cause, 61-64 1 ^ Pro- 
scribed rebel, 63 ; and the tea party, 
64-69; and the Port Bill, 69-76; a 
delegate to the Continental Congress, 
77, 84, 94-100; welcomes President 
Washington, 203. 

Albany Congress, 18. 

Alexandria commissioners, 154. 

Alien and Sedition laws, 220-223. 

Allen, Ethan, 12. 

"American system," 264-266. 

Annapolis Convention, 155-157. 

Articles of Confederation, formed, 137- 
139; financial troubles of, 139-150; 
commercial difficulties under, 151- 
154- 

Bank, Jackson on the, 298-301. 
Birney, James G., 365. 
Birthday, Jefferson's, celebration, 302- 
306. 



41 



Boston, Massacre, 56-60; Tea Party, 
64-69; Port Bill, 69-76; visit of 
President Jackson, 307-315. 

Braddock's expedition, 257. 

Brown, Henry Box, 364, 365. 

Burns, Anthony, 367. 

Burr, Aaron, in election of 1800, 225 ; 
organizes an expedition into the 
southwest, 241-243. 

Calhoun, John C, 302-305, 321, 325, 
328, 332, 338, 354, 378. 

Canals as public improvements, 278. 

Capital of the United States, 178, 207. 

Charters, colonial, 11-15. 

Clay, Henry, early life of, 259-263 ; in 
the Senate, 263; evolves his Ameri- 
can system, 264-266; and the Cum- 
berland Road, 266 ; on the War of 
1812; 267-270; and the Ma)'sville 
Road, 273; as a presidential candi- 
date, 274-281, 284 ; a traveller on the 
Cumberland Road, 276; as Secretary 
of State, 285 ; Compromise of 1833, 
307 ; Compromise of 1850, 338 ; death 
of, 375, 378 ; as a frontiersman, 384. 

"Coffin handbills," 291. 

Colonial discord, 1-15. 

Colonists, isolation of the, 255. 

Commissioners, Virginia and Mary- 
land, 154. 

Committees of Correspondence, 51, 
72. 

Compromise of 1850, 335-345. 

Concord and Lexington, 105-108. 

Congress, a, suggested, 72, yj. 

Congress, First Continental, 72-104; 
Connecticut delegates to, 86. 

I 



412 



INDEX 



Congress, financial troubles of, 119- 
123, 127-136, 139-150; calls a con- 
vention, 157. 

Congress, Second Continental, 108- 
III. 

Constitution of the United States 
framed, 157-172 ; adopted, 173-180. 

Continental money, 119-123; 127-136, 
140. 

Convention, Annapolis, 155-157. 

Convention, Constitutional, 157-172. 

Convention, national nominating, 287. 

" Critical period," the, 148. 

Crockett, David, 279, 316. 

Cuinberland national road, 266, 271, 
276. 

Deane, Silas, 86, 127-132. 
Debates of Lincoln and Douglas, 389. 
Declaration of Independence, 113-118. 
Dickinson, John, 54, 80, 81, 102, 137, 

157- 
Douglas, Stephen A., 379-384. 
Duclie, Rev., 95-99. 

Election, of 1800, 224-229; of 1824, 
283; of 1852, 344, 374; of 1840, 

349- 
Embargo of 1808, 246-251. 
England and impressment, 244-246. 
English predominance in the colonies, 

14-17. 
"Era of good feeling," 283. 
Established Church, 2-7, 259. 
Examination of Franklin, 29. 

Federal Hall, New York City, 185. 

Federalist party, formed, 174; rash 
actions of, 220-224; oppose election 
of Jefferson, 226; death of, 319. 

" Federalist, The," 176. 

First Continental Congress, called, 72- 
78 ; delegates to, 79-92 ; action of, 
92-101 ; entertainment of, 101-104. 

Fitch, John, 166. 

Foote's resolution, 321. 

France, aids America, 127-132 ; war 
fever against, 222; and the Missis- 
sippi valley, 256. 



Franklin, Benjamin, third trip to 
England, i ; efforts for union, 17 ; 
and the Stamp Act, 23-32 ; examina- 
tion of, 29 ; on Parliamentary cor- 
ruption, 33 ; on the navigation laws, 
36; daily life in England, 40-44; 
and the Hutchinson letters, 42-45; 
returns to Philadelphia, 45; secures 
aid from France, 127-132; in the 
Constitutional Convention, 163-172. 

Frontier, the American, 255-259, 383- 
387. 

Fugitive slaves, 335-342, 368-370, 373. 

Gallatin, Albert, 234, 236, 239-241, 
244-251. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 341, 359-368. 

Graham, Dr., reforms of, 351. 

Greeley, Horace, on Clay, 255 ; early 
career of, 348 ; in the campaign of 
1840, 349 ; founds the Tribune, 350 ; 
as a social reforiner, 351 ; in Con- 
gress, 352-358 ; and the Abolition 
reform, 358-366; and the Fugitive 
Slave law, 368-370 ; on " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," 371-374; and the election 
of 1852, 374-377; handwriting of, 
376 ; effects of his labors, 377 ; quoted, 
382; and Lincoln, 391-398, 405. 

Grenville, George, 19-26. 

" Half horse and half alligator," 290. 

Hamilton, Alexander, an aide, 135; 
delegate to Annapolis Convention, 
155-157 ; delegate to Philadelphia 
Convention, 161-171 ; and "The 
Federalist," 176; in the New York 
State Convention, 177-180 ; made 
Secretary of the Treasury, 202; his 
reports, 207; head of party, 211 ; on 
the implied powers, 219. 

Hancock, John, 62, 109, 179, 204. 

Harvard College and President Jack- 
son, 315. 

Hayne, Robert Y., 302, 323-332. 

Henry, Patrick, 2, 90, 104. 

Hughes, stamp agent, 26. 

Hutchinson letters, 42-45. 



\ 



INDEX 



413 



Impressment of American sailors, 

244-246. 
Improvements, internal, 255-281. 
Inauguration, of Washington, 195 ; of 

Jefferson, 230; of Jackson, 294-296. 
Independence, growth of sentiment for, 

111-113; declared, 114; committee 

on declaration of, 112, 114-116. 
Internal improvements, 255-281. 

Jackson, Andrew, on internal im- 
provements, 274 ; in the election of 
1824, 284-286; in the election of 
1828, 286-294 ; journey to Washing- 
ton, 294; inauguration, 295-297 ; and 
office-seekers, 297 ; as a foe to the 
bank, 298-301 ; and Jefferson's birth- 
day celebration, 302-304; and nulli- 
fication, 304-306 ; tour to New Eng- 
land, 306-316; contribution to the 
Union, 317; and Clay's "American 
system," 323. 

Jackson, Mrs. Rachel, attacks upon, 
291-294. 

Jefferson, Thomas, writes Declaration 
of Independence, 113-118; becomes 
Secretary of State, 202 ; head of 
party, 211 ; rallies people against the 
Federalists, 220-224; elected Presi- 
dent, 224-229 ; inaugurated, 229-232 ; 
and the offices, 232-235 ; economic 
plans, 235 ; purchases Louisiana, 
236-240; and the navy, 240; and 
Burr's expedition, 241-243 ; on im- 
pressment, 244; tries an embargo, 
246-251 ; retires to Monticello, 252- 
254; birthday celebration, 302-306; 
as a frontiersman, 384. 

Kansas and Nebraska, 380, 383. 
Kentucky, beginnings of, 257-259 ; Lex- 
ington, 261. 

Lexington and Concord, 105-108. 

Lincoln, Abraham, and mileage reform, 
354, 356; on the Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill, 383; as a frontier product, 383- 
387 ; and the new Republican party, 
387-389 ; as a prospective candidate, 



389-393; nominated, 394; and Sew- 
ard, 395-398; campaign of, 399-401 ; 
€71 route to Washington, 402-405 ; 
efforts for the Union, 405-407; on 
reconstruction, 408 ; death of, 409. 

Log-cabin campaign, 349. 

" Log-rolling," 272. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 236-240. 

Lovejoy, Elijah P., 360. 

Lowell, James Russell, 338, 375, 403. 

Loyalists, treatment of, 143-146. 

Lundy, Benjamin, 359. 

Madison, James, 4, 153, 154-158, 168, 
175. 176, 233. 

Marshall, Christopher, 117; diary of, 
46. 

Massachusetts, Colonial Church in, 3, 
4 ; delegates to First Continental 
Congress, 84-86. 

Maysville Road, 273. 

Mileage reform, Greeley on, 353-355. 

Missouri Compromise line, 380. 

Morris, Robert, early career, 124-126; 
efforts in Philadelphia, 133-136 ; as 
financier, 139-141 ; as a friend of 
Washington, 149; misfortunes of, 
150; nominates Washington in the 
Constitutional Convention, 164. 

Navigation Acts, 35-37. 

Nebraska and Kansas, 380-383. 

New Hampshire delegates to First Con- 
tinental Congress, 83. 

Newspapers, and the Stamp Act, 27 ; 
early history of, 347. 

New York, on Poit Bill, 72; delegates 
to First Continental Congress, 91 ; 
commercial troubles of, 152; adopts 
the Constitution, 177 ; Lincoln in, 

390, 403- 
Non-importation, Associations of, 52- 

54- 
North, Lord, 61, 64, 65, 131. 
Nullification, 302-307, 331. 

"Parley, Peter," on the railroad. 

279. 
Pennsylvania, race differences, 7-9; 



414 



INDEX 



charter of, 13 ; delegates to First Con- 
tinental Congress, 81 ; ratifies the 
Constitution, 173. 

Personal liberty laws, 370. 

" Pet banks," 300. 

Philadelphia, on Port Bill, 72; Sons of 
Liberty of, 79-81 ; First Continental 
Congress at, 79-104; second Con- 
gress at, 108-111; captured by the 
British, 132-136 ; entertains the Con- 
stitutional Convention, 165; as the 
capital, 209; visit of President Jack- 
son, 308-310. 

Phillips, Wendell, 342, 343, 359. 

Port Bill, Boston, 69-76. 

Potomac navigation commissioners, 
154- 

R.-vcE prejudices, 7-9. 

Railroads, beginnings of, 278-280. 

Reconstruction, period of, 408. 

Religious persecution, 3-7. 

Removals from office under Jefferson, 
232-235. 

Republican party, the, 377, 387-389. 

Revere, Paul, 68, 71, 105. 

Rhode Island delegates to First Conti- 
nental Congress, 87 ; not represented 
in the Philadelphia Convention, 156, 
159. 

Servants, indentured, 9-1 1. 

Seward, William H., 390-398. 

Shays's Rebellion, 160. 

Smuggling, colonial, 20-22. 

Sons of Liberty, 54-56; of Philadel- 
phia, 79-81. 

South Carolina delegates to First Con- 
tinental Congress, 81-83. 

Spoils system, Jefferson and, 232-235 ; 
Jackson and, 296-298; Greeley on 
the, 352. 

Spotswood, Governor, 256. 

" Squatter sovereignty," 381. 

Stamp Act, 23-32, 37. 

States rights and the Union, 218. 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 371-374. 

Suffolk resolutions, 99. 

Suffrage extension, 287. 



Tariff, the first, 199; of 1832, 302; 

South Carolina on, 302-307. 
Taxation of America, 19-41. 
Tea and the American colonies, 64-69. 
Thomson, Charles, 79-81, 93, 94, 186, 

188. 
Tories, treatment of, 143-146. 
Town meeting, the, 47-49. 
Townshend, Charles, 38-40, 61, 64. 
Troops in Boston, 56-60. 

" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 371-374. 

Union, beginnings of the, 14-19, 98, 
loi ; Morris's efforts for, 139 ; Ham- 
ilton and the, 169; Washington's 
services for the, 214, 318; Jefferson 
and the, 224, 254; Clay's contribu- 
tion to the, 255, 281 ; Jackson on the, 
317; the silent growth of the, 318- 
320; and the states, 321; in danger 
in 1850, 338 ; Webster's contribution 
to, 346. 

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, 
220-223, 3°3' 

Virginia, Colonial Church in, 2-7 ; dele- 
gates to First Continental Congress, 
88-91 ; adopts the Constitution, 175; 
and the Ohio valley, 256-259. 

War, Revolutionary, 105-149; with 
France in 1798, 223 ; of 1812, 267- 
270, 282; with Mexico, 332. 

Washington, George, delegate to First 
Continental Congress, 89, 102; made 
commander-in-chief, no; quoted, 
in; faith in the government, 149; 
entertains Potomac commissioners, 
154; at the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 162-172; suggested for the 
Presidency, 178; accepis the Presi- 
dency, 181-186; journey to New 
York, 188-195 ; inauguration of, 195- 
197; administration of, 197-216; 
journey to New England, 203 ; po- 
litical attacks upon, 210-215; expe- 
dition to the Ohio, 257 ; and Lincoln, 
406. 



INDEX 



415 



Waterways as means of communica- 
tion, 255. 

Webster, Daniel, on Clay's " American 
system," 323; debate with Hayne, 
324-331; political career of, 333; 
reputation as an orator, 334 ; on 
slavery, 335; on the Fugitive Slave 
Act, 338; Seventh of March speech, 
339-343 ; and the Convention of 1852, 
344; as an independent candidate, 



345 ; contribution to the Union, 346; 

and Abolitionists, 361 ; on Webster, 

368 ; death of, 375, 378. 
Webster, Noah, 167, 215. 
Whig party, 327, 375. 
Whitman, Walt, 403-410. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 318, 342. 
Wilderness Road, 257. 
Writs of assistance, 21. 



History of the United States 

FROM THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 

By JAMES FORD RHODES 
Four Volumes. Cloth. 8vo. Each $2.50 



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" The first volume begins with the passage of the Compromise Measures of 
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second volume deals with the stirring polidcal events which transpired from the 
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struggles to the organization of the Republican party, and its final national tri- 
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

06 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



THE UNITED STATES 

AN OUTLINE OF POLITICAL HISTORY, 1492-1871 

By GOLDWIN SMITH, D.C.L. 

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